Move over, Vince from Shamwow. This is my latest favourite advert on television! Adidas' "Celebrate Originality", which just happens to be the most expensive commercial ever shot.
It's like those old disaster films of the '70s. Every time you turn around, there's a famous person peeping out. Let's count 'em:
David Beckham schmoozing with Kevin Garnett. Russell Simmons, Young Jeezy, Brandy, Katy Perry, Estelle, Taye Diggs, Serena Williams blowing confetti, Chris Rock, Ilie Nastase, Kazuki, Ryukyudisko, Marlon Wayans, Missy Elliot (love her doing an updated version of the Car Wash -- I thought only us uncoordinated folk did that when dancing), Afra, Jeremy Scott, Mark Gonzales, Run DMC, Chad Hugo, The Ting Tings, Redman, Method Man, et so very al.
So do you like it? You have to admit, that song is just tight. It's "Beggin'" by Madcon, which those of you who remember is originally by Frankie Valli! Good Lord. What will these crazy kids rip off next?
Incidentally, one of the best parties I ever attended had a very similar vibe to this video.
It was in South America. I was invited by one of the scions of this elite family to come to a certain address. I went with a group by taxi to this extremely secluded area, which is rather daring of my parents since I was just 14 or so. They trusted me.
Turned out to be an entire building which had been rented for the express purpose of this party. Can you imagine that? Brilliant.
When I asked if it was a birthday party, a more seasoned boy smiled and replied: No. It's just a party. He grabbed my hand and we went running up the stairs, which were crowded with all manner of people, young and old, sitting, reclining, bending over, and lying around the stairwell.
Each flat had a theme, and since this was a pre-war building, they were often interconnecting like those still found in New York City.
One had jugglers, the other was a poetry reading, the next was a seance, one especially large flat was just dancing (only later was I told the group playing were one of the most famous rock bands in the country). There was a menagerie of animals, including chimpanzees and a flock of birds, located near the roof. Yes, there was even a mime that went around, but not one of those supercilious French versions -- he was a very recherché post-modern mime, rather as if Proust had come back to life, monocle and all, blowing soap bubbles.
As you entered one room, you took a whiff of nitrous oxide. Not only did I not do a Clinton, I enjoyed it.
I explored each room, each floor, yes, even each bathtub. I laughed and danced for hours. I lost and found my friends a dozen times, until we reunited for good for the final attraction.
All the lights were turned off suddenly, women screaming, like women do when something delicious is about to happen.
Suddenly, fireworks lit up the rooms from outside, setting alight the faces of all the people around me in a glow I have tried to duplicate in all my parties, without success.
See, originality is rarely original.
It merely exists until one day you discover it all over again.
To anyone who has been following my blog since August 29th, you know just how intensely I have been writing about the trajectory of Governor Sarah Palin.
After she failed to make a campaign appearance in Miami, and her ticket lost the presidential election, I thought it would be ages until I saw her in person. It was akin to withdrawal, though I wouldn't go so far as to say it depressed me.
To my slight astonishment, then, the week after the presidential election saw a continued burgeoning interest in the Governor -- if anything, given that she was now calling her own shots, minus the leash of Camp McCain, she was suddenly everywhere.
Then, in one of the most unbelievable strokes of luck that I've had in my life (and I confess that I have been unbelievably blessed, for which I thank God very humbly), it was confirmed that the Governor would be attending the Republican Governors Association at the Hotel Intercontinental, no more than 5-10 minutes away from my home.
I knew this opportunity could not be passed up.
So I gathered up my courage, and sans press pass (though a blogger colleague had kindly offered his), I went to the Hotel early in the morn, and with the self-assurance that I was born with, went past the two Miami police officers closely guarding the barriers into the Hotel. After valet parking my car, once inside, no one bothered me.
Here are tips to anyone wanting to crash one of the hottest events in town.
Dress very well. Be polite. But walk in like you own the joint. Also, don't ask too many questions. Pretend you know what you are doing, and suspicion is lessened. This has served me well the whole of my life, and you would be surprised just the types of people I have met using these suggestions.
I went up one of the two escalators, in a hotel I had been to several times before (knowing the layout certainly helped). In 1994, when we were not actually watching World Cup matches around the US during that amazing year, my parents and I went to watch matches via satellite in the same ballroom area Governor Palin was in today.
Unfortunately, the area around the meetings and press conferences were impenetrable. I decided to play it cool and go back downstairs, milling around the various reporters and journalists we all of us know so well.
Walking past William Kristol, I smiled and he graciously smiled back. I could've cared less about Dana Bash, and the other soberly suited reporters leaning over their state-of-the-art Macs, typing away their bylines or transcribing their notes -- I saw the son of my personal historian heroine, Gertrude Himmelfarb, and that made me happy.
The following are my impressions, and I will stand by them, even if they turn out to be erroneous as to the names of the people I saw. I'll correct them whenever possible, after checking the guest lists.
Incredibly, there was Governor Tim Pawlenty yet again, a man I've now seen three times in two days. He was certainly a media favourite, it seemed to me.
I wondered if the Franken-Coleman situation was why he was in such great demand, but given the interviews I heard him give (2), which were not exactly sour towards Governor Palin, but they were, shall we say, cool towards her, I wonder just how much he was bothered that there but for the grace of God for Palin, he would've been alongside McCain.
I have no doubt at all that he is positioning himself for 2012.
Speaking of which, I saw our own Governor Charlie Crist, some hours later. He is perhaps the most polished man I have seen next to President-Elect Obama. He gives off precisely the same kind of sleek svelteness, which is very difficult to describe. I noticed that his face is much more leathery than he even shows in photographs. You want to talk tanning beds, there's your guy.
He is not an excitable fellow, but it struck me that almost everyone milling around shared his...oh I don't know -- perhaps irritation, mixed with edgy competitiveness.
There was a definite undercurrent of tension there, which perhaps is common in the US political realm when so many high-powered politicians are congregated in a relatively narrow space, but it was really new to me.
I went to get myself my caramel macchiato at the Starbucks inside the hotel, as the conference was in full swing.
I turned around, and I do believe the person I saw was (of all people) ex-Senator Rick Santorum. If I am right, he was accompanied by an aide, both of them acting oddly. They seemed...self-important. He nudged his way past me, though clearly I was in the queue ahead of him. Then, after perusing the desserts counter, he ironically asked me if I was "standing in line", and with a dry retort, I said yes indeed I was (I have an allergy to people who are queue jumpers).
He and his aide started snickering as they went behind me, perhaps caught off-guard at my accent and formal tone.
In fact, I have to tell you something, my dear Sundries readers. The entire atmosphere of that conference oozed people who acted as if they are self-important. I am used to a certain amount of arrogance. God knows I just admitted I can be too.
But there is a fine line between thinking you're so important, that the basic rules of life do not apply to you -- and this Hotel was bursting at the seems with such people.
To me, this is utterly ridiculous.
Certainly, I am not talking about the actual politicians who were there, who perhaps one can excuse for thinking they are important people. If you're a Governor of an US State, heck yeah, you're important.
I am talking about the dark-suited aides, flunkies, and general gadflies hanging around the politicians. I include in this the reporters on their beat, but since this is a political meeting, I will concentrate on these folks.
Perhaps I caught them on an off-day, but it strikes me that if you are the Party striving to get back into the national discourse, and certainly looking to the Governors for leadership not just politically, but in terms of bearing, that it doesn't do your kind any favours by seeming toffee-nosed.
Having a few relatives in Washington, I have met my fair share of these hangers-on, individually; lobbyists, aides, speech writers, and the like. They are often irritating people, and seem to look down on people given who is in and who is out given that day's news cycle. There is an intensity to their "inside baseball" jockeying for knowledge.
That's precisely the idea I got from this assembly.
If they didn't recognise you (and I am not in the least speaking of me, but the little by-plays I observed), or you were not in the loop, your presence was not coveted. Poor Governor Heineman of Nebraska was practically a nonentity there.
You know another strange shock I got from these many black suited aides? That many of them are really effeminate. Not swishy, you understand, though I did see a few of those. But they behaved in a feminised fashion.
One such fellow was ordering Starbucks for a well-known Governor (he said the name loudly, as if the people overhearing it would be impressed, but I will not reveal it out of discretion), and I realised that the "bag men" tend to be young, handsome, well-dressed to the point of being fashionable (which is different from being elegant, of course).
Perhaps it's understandable that when you are in that position, you need to look well since you're representing someone of note. But I was reminded of the many Buckingham Palace staff I used to meet in the after-hours Ebury Wine Bar, near Victoria Station. The men were all exactly this type of effeminate man, and I think they were hired because they got off being so close to power, and loved being surrounded by opulence.
After a while, so as to draw attention away from my lolly-gagging around, I went to the Indigo restaurant downstairs. To my astonishment, as I sat near the bar, about 20 feet away, almost as if he were in a cubicle, there was I do believe Governor Bobby Jindal. He is much younger-looking than you can imagine. He looks like he's a college freshman, and actually, in profile looked bizarrely similar to a young JFK. He was utterly alone, and since I didn't want to stare, I am not sure if he was having a quiet moment to catch up with news, or if he were on his laptop or what.
What an ascetic air he has!
There is a problem with Jindal's chances to run for the Presidency in 2012, as I see it.
There are some people who give off a certain something (more on that in a bit). Jindal didn't at all give me that impression. He seemed utterly unmagnetic, and though not ordinary, perhaps I was expecting more. Frankly, he was nerdy-looking.
To become a genuine threat to run for the Presidency, especially given the adoration of his followers, and the presence that President-Elect Obama gives off (which is genuine, he truly is impressive up close), I believe you need to be a charismatic person. Jindal looks like a rather earnest priest.
After ordering my lunch, I went back upstairs since Governor Palin's remarks were supposed to be over by that time. I went up the escalators again, and a cop smiled as I went by. Whew.
There were two permanent news stations on either side of the circular area. One was busy interviewing Mike Duncan (hey, I finally saw our fearless RNC leader), whilst the other was getting impressions from an NBC or perhaps MSNBC reporter.
If you have gotten this far in my massively long, and somewhat gossipy post, you are about to be rewarded.
Because this is when I saw Governor Sarah Palin, not 10-15 feet away from me.
Before I tell you my feelings about her, let me just add that I think I have suddenly gotten some inkling as to why feminists, and particularly, feminist journalists dislike her so.
As I saw her speaking to a bevy of these black-suits, I realised a startlingly obvious point which hadn't struck me as fully before: she was the LONE woman of power in that entire area.
Though Governor Linda Lingle was there, I didn't see her. I don't think it would've altered my impression that Sarah Palin is doing the impossible -- she is a force in a profession of raw power which is almost entirely male.
In fact, she is not just a force, she is THE FORCE right now.
As she spoke, I am not kidding you when I say that every eye was either unabashedly on her, or trying to pretend they weren't flat out staring at her.
This was the conversation at the bar, as one overheard whispered conversations in snatches.
"Finally, then Sarah Palin went..." "Did you hear that Sarah Palin said..." "An incredible...Sarah Palin...finished"
Sarah Palin. Sarah Palin. Sarah Palin. The name was EVERYWHERE.
When I read Bekah's account of meeting Sarah Palin, and Bekah had a far more powerful encounter than my simple clapping eyes on the lady, I recall her saying that she had a glow about her. Well, Bekah, if you are reading this, I will tell you that I wondered if that was right or were you simply too moved that day to be able to read her correctly.
I also am aware that since I do genuinely like her, that I did not want this attitude to influence me either way. I want to give you as neutral an impression as I can about Palin.
But I have to apologise for thinking that, because you were absolutely right, Beks. Sarah Palin has an aura around her that is unbelievable. I have never seen anything quite like it in a politician. I used to scoff at the idea of "rock star" whenever Obama was mentioned, but truly, there are certain people in this world which stand out as super stars. It's like they are illuminated by their own personal spotlight.
And Palin in that group of macho egos, waspish young men and resentful career women was most definitely a rock star.
Her head of hair is enormous, leonine even, giving her very slight body a top-heavy look. She was slightly stooped, and wore a shiny kind of black top which I didn't think flattered her, but she still looked utterly beautiful.
She is not that tall (a running joke on Sundries about her height) so my first jolted thought was, Katie Couric must be a shrimp.
But my second thought was 'wow'.
I kept wondering, was she always like this? Does her recent run as the Vice-Presidential nominee somehow make her stand out from those around her, giving her a glamour they just don't have? I would've loved to have known this woman before 2008.
I remember writing a blogpost after her roll-out called "Sarah Palin Does That To People", where I wrote that she has this force which draws her to some people (like Adam Brinkley, who launched that website about her vice-presidential prospects after her gubernatorial win in 2006) or like Ruth Anne Adams or Benning, both of whom mentioned her to me back in May.
We all of us were dealing with the idea of Sarah Palin, but nevertheless, she clearly had the same effect on people who saw in this small-town girl with the funny regional accent, someone to definitely keep an eye on.
Here is another interesting fact, which in fact, was mentioned by a few commenters, those self-same angry feminists, and Dennis Miller on O'Reilly the other night: Palin is sexy.
Not just sexy, as in she is shapely and cute, but the lady oozes a really startling raw sexuality.
I think this is yet another piece in the puzzle of why she is disliked by so many people, or why Sandra Bernhardt and other lesbians found themselves appalled and yet obsessed by her. There is something of the unattainable about her, which must frustrate them tremendously. One has to be very careful when talking about this aspect of her femininity, because it can be misconstrued. It's a chicken or the egg argument, at that.
Most women traipse a fine line between feeling the need to hide their gender in the workplace, to be less fecund, all in the hopes they will be taken more seriously in their jobs. And in walks Sarah Palin, her five children, the product of a happily married state. It must be indescribably frustrating to them that she doesn't play by other kinds of women-determined 'rules'.
Also, they feel that she should, by all rights, be rather ordinary -- I mean, Wasilla, the town of 7,000 come on, they think. This disappoints people who want her to be mundane, which would allow her to be easily dismissed by them.
But she's not, and they, therefore, cannot. This is the Sarah Palin problem for them: she cannot be torn down so easily. They just don't understand why. She keeps popping up, undeterred, confounding every type of received liberal wisdom.
Another thing is that of all the people in that room, one never got a conceited vibe from her.
She kept leaning into people, rocking back her head in laughter, not just listening to what the guys around her said, but paying attention to what they said. This is probably why many people call her "gracious". Her people skills, in the brief time I saw her working them, were exceptional.
Finally, I would say she also gave off an ambitious vibe.
This is hard to describe because obviously it requires personal knowledge of the woman, which I clearly lack.
But if you've ever seen a person on the make, then you've seen Sarah Palin. I understand now why Lyda Green (her Alaskan nemesis) so dislikes her, and thinks she's "sneaky". She was working that room in no uncertain way.
The Plenary Session started up a bit later, so to buy time, I decided to treat myself to a spa visit upstairs.
The beautifully appointed spa was awash with older ladies in the provided cloth bathrobes, waiting for their massages and manicures inside the Relaxation Room. I have no doubt that I was probably seated next to Governor This or That's wife. For all I know, I could've been next to a future First Lady.
Of course, I asked if Palin had been to the spa, but my attendant was "not interested in politics" as she quietly told me. She pronounced politics like many Spanish people do, incidentally, Paul-LEE-ticks.
No worries. I understand. Not everyone is crazy enough about politics to crash a conference to which she was not invited, for the express purpose of posting a very long, chatty, and perhaps at times inchoate blogpost for her readership.
Because I didn't go there and then write about it just for me.
If that had been the case, I would've taken up that kind of offer from the blogger to get a press pass and do it properly. I no doubt would've written up a more professional post, full of wonkese, and less rambling.
Instead, I wanted to be a fly on the wall for you.
As I said, I stand by my impressions of each of the situations I wrote about, but I have the sensation that if you had been there with me, you would've shared my opinions as I wrote them about each person.
I have only one regret, which my mother (who comically surprised me later by actually crashing the event herself...I guess I know where I get my moxie from) told me continues to be a source of frustration to her.
"Why didn't you take a photo of her??"
"Oh mum, come on. I couldn't do that. I was too embarrassed."
"Don't be weak! I didn't raise you to be weak!" (P.S. my mother hates weak people)
"I didn't want to look...like I didn't belong."
(angry) "You were born belonging!"
Perhaps. Interestingly, this is the moral of this quixotic blogpost about the first time I saw Sarah Palin.
Some people were born belonging. When they have a goal, the idea that it cannot be done doesn't cross their mind. But that's not Sarah Palin's destiny. Palin wasn't born belonging. She made it by sheer brute force of her personality, her will, and ambition to belong.
It struck me that being an outsider is sometimes a blessing in disguise. Whilst others preen themselves on how much of an insider they are, how much more they know than the "little people", and just how important they are because of it, Palin stands there amongst them aware that she is the perpetual outsider.
Outsider because of her gender. Because of where she comes from. Because she doesn't play by the rules she was born to.
Sarah Palin just didn't crash an event. She crashed an entire career.
P.S.: Well, once I came down from my pampering, when the joint had cleared out for their Art Deco tour, I did take some photos. Come on now, I have to be good for something!
ON MY WAY! What a gorgeous 85F sunny SoFla day.
The entrance of the Hotel Intercontinental. Traffic homicide? All hands on deck.
A view of our new skyline. Previously the Freedom Tower, now dwarfed by those downtown condos, was the tallest building to the Northeast of it.
Coast Guard Patrol carefully inspecting the waters. A lot of governors needed to be protected inside.
The CNN station where Sarah Palin was interviewed yesterday by Larry King.
A view of the lobby from above.
You can see some of the "blue-suits" lounging around the atrium. That limestone is very neurotic.
I needed to chill out in the Relaxation Room.
As I left, this policewoman's horse cast me a dirty look. It's like he KNOWS.
Princess Anne's predecessor as "Princess Royal" was Princess Mary, daughter of George V and Queen Mary. She was born during a most auspicious moment, 1897 -- Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee year.
When time came to name the royal tot, her otherwise very staid parents were about to astonish the entire world when they revealed the chosen name. She would be called:
Princess "Diamond".
Even today it sounds like a stripper name.
Fortunately, that man with intimate knowledge of all things female, her philandering grandfather Edward VII, intervened and with great wisdom ixnayed the choice.
"Would any woman want to be so marked by a name whose birth year was instantly known?"
In other words, she would never be able to lie about her age, like any respectable woman does when she hits 32. Trust me on this.
It seems the children born since the heady mid-80s and especially the logo-conscious 90s could've done with a grandpa or two like King Edward.
Some of the jaw-droppingly awful and yet so giggle-making names chosen during this time, by parents both in the US and in the UK, include:
Among the other popular names in the United States in 2000 -- Chanel (269 girls), Timberland (six boys), Porsche (24 girls) and Armani (273 boys and 298 girls).
Obviously, the first thing that comes to mind is a lot of these kids come from backgrounds where owning a Porsche or Lexus is not just fashion-forward, but lifestyle-forward.
I can't help but thinking that no matter how "forward" these parents might think they are, that they are actually following a trend, and therefore backwards.
Much more impressive are parents who pounce on names which become a part of daily life...but didn't even exist when their baby was born.
I don't know about you, but I sure would like to have met this guy's parents.
I've been thinking of getting Amazon's e-Book reader, the Kindle.
Positives: Portability. Vague likeness to iPods, which I adore. Various newspaper and blog subscriptions, updated instantly. Good power reserve. Bestsellers are only $9.99, no waiting.
Negatives: $400. Often limited whispernet coverage. No colour LCD, backlight. Still 1.0 version. Did I mention it's $400 freaking dollars?
There are some dead zones for the wireless connectivity. Here is the map, to check to see if your area is included.
My question to Sundries readers is the following:
Would you, if you could or would want to, buy the Kindle?
Please note that the 2.0 version is rumoured to be far off, still, though ideally one should always wait for the update. My guess is Christmas '08, though.
Here's a CNET review of the gadget, in case you yourself might be hazy about it (as I was very recently).
I read about this product via Pajamas Media, having gotten my Gadget Queen's immediate attention with the juxtaposition of coffee, eggs, and John Stuart Mills. Yum. I read on:
This morning, I decided to drop down to my local coffee establishment for a breakfast of coffee, eggs, and some morning reading. I had a lot of new things, and pre-coffee I’m not up to making decisions, so I just brought several things to read: Peter Kramer’s Against Depression; Marianne Williamson’s The Age of Miracles; Wayne Dyer’s Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life: Living the Wisdom of the Tao; and for a little more rigorous reading of Buddhism I brought The Dhammapada, D.T. Suzuki’s Manual on Zen Buddhism, Steve Hagen’s Meditation Now or Never, and Buddhism Is Not What You Think — great title, that — the complete works of Edgar Allen Poe and Mark Twain; Sun Tzu’s Art of War and Musashi’s Book of Five Rings; a couple of novels; some books on Ruby and Python programming; the most recent issue of Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine; Locke’s Essay Concerning Human Understanding and Second Treatise of Government; John Stuart Mills’ On Liberty; Paradise Lost, Shakespeare’s Sonnets; and some Larry Niven.
“What, in a wheelbarrow?” you’re thinking? No, in my Kindle. Of course, it’s only about 30 percent full."
