About The New Interpol Album

Interpol might not be very good at choosing a cover for their new album ‘Our Love To Admire’, but for those who are familiar with this wonderful Indie rock band, can clearly notice that they have changed their image. Musically speaking, Interpol hasn’t changed much compared to their previous releases, but they have done a much better job at perfecting their sound and song writing.

Personally, I think Interpol is one of the finest Indie rock bands out there and this new album being the latest addition to my music collection. I believe the strongest song of the album is "Rest My Chemistry" (the song is too new for me to post)… probably one of the best songs I’ve heard from them since their debut album ‘Turn Up The Bright Lights’.

'PDA' - From their debut album 'Turn Up The Bright Lights'

The band does a good job at implementing a few new sounds to their songs without losing their identity. This is not yet my favorite Interpol album, but it certainly has the potential. It is quite a pleasure to hear.
If you like Indie rock, I highly recommend it.

'Slow Hands' - From their second album 'Antics'

For your information, Interpol will be visiting South Florida sometime next month, an event that I will be broadcasting for all of you.

A CEO's Salary: Then And Now

Visit this site for more infographics.

Via Notcot

Ikea Opens a No Charge Hostel For Shoppers

Yep, you read that right! Now Ikea is opening up in Oslo, a free Ikea Hostel for shoppers who want to stay overnight so they can continue shopping the next morning.

It will have standard and luxury suites, including all the accommodations a normal hostel would bring. Guests also get to keep their sheets, slippers and bathrobes as a souvenir. Many Norwegians could consider this the ultimate getaway.

Spectacular Building

This bizarre structure looks abandoned, but looking at it from a design standpoint, I think this is a really cool building. It was featured in the exhibition "Spectacular City" at the NAI in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. It was displayed only as a photo exhibition, without giving any information about the architect or location. I did my little research and this wonderful structure is the Department of Transportation in Tifflis, Georgia... designed by Z. Djalagania and G. Tschachawa back in 1976.

Photo credit: NAI

Another Open Letter

Dear girl with a brand new cellphone:

Can you please not test all your 40+ cellphone ring tones while you’re in a nice, fancy lounge? I was having a conversation with my friends while trying to enjoy a Warsteiner the night of my birthday when you spent some good 15 minutes choosing a new ring tone.

Then you ended up choosing an awful Jessica Simpson ring tone and set it up real loud so you can hear your phone ring… great.

Can’t you turn down the volume a little bit?

Thanks,

Jamie

Tonight...

Well, posting has been low on the priority list tonight. I will probably be out of town for business for about a week and I've been getting ready for it.
I tried to post a couple of times, but I decided I was too busy for words and the world of blogs was better off with no post at all.
I will be posting during the week though, so for now, I leave you with an old The Simpsons clip.



Feel free to visit the archives...

My Birthday

So, today I am 28 years old... 28, yikes!
Being 28 years old confirms something that I’ve been suspecting for a while: I am in my late 20’s.

Yep. 27 was a great year of fame, fortune, rock and roll, expensive traveling with style, surrounded at all times by Paul Banks, John Krasinski, Daniel Craig... well, the last one is not true... okay, okay! none of this is true with the exception of the rock and roll part.

But one thing is true, I feel good about my life so far up to 28. I have a degree and two jobs: writing (which I enjoy the most) and working as a production planner.





[The picture on the left is when I graduated from high school. During that time, I was already working as an animal handler for the local circus.]


I have a great family. I have really cool friends (special thanks to Lety, Anny, Kim, Henry, Brian, Paola, Fran, Ari, and Karen). I also got the gifts I asked for, and more:

• A piece of chocolate cake… Check!
(Thanks, Ari.)










• Phone calls, emails, comments and/or a visit to congratulate me and to tell me how awesome I am… Check!










• A pack of diet Coke or Pepsi… Check!
• Flowers… Check!
• A slice of pizza at Andiamo. - This one is coming soon, so… Check!
• A bottle of Warsteiner. Killian or Bass at the local bar… Check!

• A bowl of Atlanta Bread Company's pumpkin soup… didn’t get it but there was plenty of food, so no need for soup.








The picture below was taken when I was around 1 year old. As you can see, I've been a little chubby most of my life (in this picture I was probably looking at a piece of chocolate that someone was eating).

To sum up, my birthday weekend was great! I had an awesome time with friends and family.

Thank you everyone for all your birthday wishes.

Pika Pika

"Pika Pika 2007" is an experimental film created by taking long-exposure photographs of people waving flashlights and stitching the photos together. It was made by Takeshi Nagata and Kazue Monno. You can view the short film here as well as some previous clips created by the duo and their crew, at Pika Pika.

This Is How Much I Care About Lindsay Lohan

Some Ads Just Don't Make Any Sense...

Company: HSBC
Headline: "Are you ready for an upgrade?"
Product: 'Premier' accounts.
Ad Image: Four boys jumping in the water from a bridge.
The Point: I have nooo idea. Can somebody explain to me?
[Click on image for bigger view]












Image: Copyranter

Muppets: 'All Through The Night'

I used to be a fan of The Muppets back in the days when I was a little kid... I still am. Now that I think about it, maybe the reason why I love music so much is because of the Muppets drummer, Animal!. Love that guy!
If this video doesn't make you shake your pompoms, then you have no heart!
Enjoy!

From The Music Department

‘Monster Hospital’ - Metric
Driving, catchy, scary and original, it grabs you right away! I absolutely love rock bands with a girl as lead singer. This song is one of my favorite songs of the summer.

’Paris’ – Tacks, The Boy Disaster

Talk about beautiful… holly crap! This song gives me the chills. I don’t like to pick favorites, but if you only download one of these songs, download this one! Keep this band in mind… it will be a Featured Artist at The Pompomist in the following weeks.

‘Rest My Chemistry’ - Interpol

I got their new album ‘Our Love To Admire’ just a few days ago, and it truly rocks! Interpol is one of my absolute favorite Indie bands. I actually haven’t been able to get past this song, which has been stuck in my head since I picked up the album.

’Lazy Lover’ – Brazilian Girls

This song is so soothing, so wonderful, it should’ve been used in a movie. So ambient, I actually float away when I listen to it, physically and mentally.

‘The other Man’ - Sloan

Is there another band out there like Sloan? One capable of writing a song about cheating that is both cool and rocks? I don’t think so. This song has been added recently to my ‘Getting ready to go out’ playlist… Why? I don’t know… I just simply like it. My Canadian friend Chris mentioned this song a few days ago on her weblog The Scottish Lemon.

The Swear Jar

Two Apartment Blocks On The Coast

This building look sort of like an optical illusion, right? Well, this nice looking structure, located in Izola, Slovenia, is actually affordable housing for young families and couples. The building, designed by Ofis Arhitekti, was nominated for a Mies van der Rohe award last year. It contains 30 units of various sizes ranging from studios to three-bedroom apartments.

The apartments are small, given that the investors aimed to construct this as low budget housing. The main purpose of the trapezoidal-shaped balconies is to offer a nice view directly to the sea even when the blinds are closed.

World's Best Shoe Store Designs

So which one is your favorite?













Via Cool Hunter

Perforated Curtains

This beautiful perforated, rolled-up, black-out curtain, called Better View, was designed by Finnish interior designer Elina Aalto. She's part of the Fiasko Design team. Each piece is custom made by hand.

This curtain design is part of SAUMA , a traveling exhibition created by the Finnish Cultural Institute in New York. SAUMA is currently at the Los Angeles Architecture and Design Museum until August 28.

How To Make Shadow Sculptures

Do you remember that article I posted a few days ago about the artwork of some shadow sculpture artists? Well, here are the step-by-step instructions to create your own shadow sculpture. Here's the link!

Mispellings Around The Country

In Miami: Business in spanglish?


In NYC: ... because that extra 's' makes it look classier...

The Family Painting

This artwork, painted by some famous Dominican artist of the sixties, has been at my father's house in NJ for years. It's definitely a family treasure. Back when I was little, I remember this painting having bright pink as the main color but, through the years, the colors have faded and now it kinda looks like this... or not.
Last Tuesday morning I made some espresso and walked to my father's living room to watch the news. I looked at the painting and noticed something... different on the painting... is it the light? Nope. Is it the frame? Not really. Is it the color?... yyeah.
So I ask my stepmother about it:

"Hey! By any chance, do you see something different on this painting?"
"Let's see.... Yeah. It's... it's the color. It looks brighter for some reason... I don't know what to tell you." - She said.

A few minutes later, my brother woke up and I asked him about the painting. He did notice something odd about it.
Half an hour later, I see my father passing by and asked him the same question:

"Different? I don't see anything different, sweetie." - He said with a suspicious face.

The next morning I woke up at around 7am to pick up the bus to go to NYC. I walked to the living room and I find my father with a red marker outlining (or ruining) the flowers on the painting.

"Dad! What are you doing?!" - I said surprised.
"I had to do something about it! The colors are fading away! See? It looks prettier now."

I guess now the family painting is priceless...

A Vacation In Pictures: The Finale

I am finally back home today. I wish my vacation would've been longer, but what can I do? I have to go back to work... and regular blogging (which isn't really 'work' for me... I totally enjoy it!). To conclude the sequence, I will go briefly through my adventures during the last few days of the trip.

On Wednesday, photographer Christian and I met for dinner at a Dominican restaurant in NJ. Mr. Ramirez is not only talented, but a really cool guy. He's such a fun person to be with.




















We had a great time having real Dominican food, talking, laughing, exchanging stories... the conversations even included an overview of the iPhone. Yep, Mr. Ramirez does have an iPhone... and I envy him! (well, the good kind of envy, that is).








Saturday was a girls night out. We (some friends, my cousin and I) went to a lounge called Lua in Hoboken, NJ.

We do not know who's the guy in the following picture...no, really! We have no idea.

Being in NYC and NJ was a great time, but deep inside, I wanted to come home already. I felt such a relief when I got to my apartment… it’s indescribable. I realized how much I love it here. For better or worse, I am a Miamian. For all its faults – the heavy traffic, the rude drivers, the hurricanes, the millions of tourists, the permanent summer and surprising rains, the lack of single men, this is my home.

And boy it’s good to be home!

A Vacation In Pictures: Going Back Home

Due to some technical problems with my camera, I won't be able to post the pictures I had planned for tonight. Hopefully I'll resolve the problem soon. I owe you an extra episode of 'A Vacation In Pictures'... coming soon to a computer near you.

But for now, I will be busy packing... getting ready to go back home. I can't complain. I had a lot of fun during my vacation! I hope to come back sometime this year to visit again, but there might be other trips here and there before this happens.

See you soon, NYC and NJ!

An Announcement

Over the next few weeks, there will be some exciting changes to this site. You see, when I started this weblog I never thought it was going to acquire the decent amount of hits I get today, so I didn’t want to invest much on it.

I am grateful that in just a few months, The Pompomist has gained some popularity. It’s still a weblog in diapers, but I think a little face lift is well deserved.

I don’t want to tell you much. I prefer to leave it as a surprise, but I will say that fundamentally the site will have a new web hosting company and a more professional appearance with new features. I actually sat down a few days ago and wrote a plan for this site. Not the I’ll-figure-it-out-as-I-go-along kinda plan… It is the kind of plan that’s well thought out while delivering the same mixture of interesting, creative and wonderful ideas. So hang on and I promise better things in the future.

And for this, I thank you...

A Vacation In Pictures: Chinatown

Chinatown is one of my favorite spots in New York City. Nope… it’s not what you would call a beautiful place with wonderful smell of jasmine; but you can surely find delicious Asian food, fresh seafood, vegetables and fruits, and garages... I mean shops with everything cheap, cheap, cheap! Great value! To me, the only problem is carrying so much stuff with my two little hands while traveling via the subway after a shopping spree.

Today, I traveled to Chinatown looking for “one purse", which in Chinese really means "3 to 4 purses plus sunglasses, plus a watch, plus a perfume". Believe it or not, I do not like to go shopping... no! seriously! Usually, when I go to the mall, I am ready to leave after half an hour. But when you’re in Chinatown, you have to take advantage of the incredible prices.

It is interesting and amusing to see the little Chinese ladies trying to sell you anything. They see you pass by and that's it! They stalk you saying in a very heavy Chinese accent:

“Purse! Watch! Good price! Which one do you like? You need something? I got what you need".

Damn! I quickly remembered about a perfume my aunt gave me as a gift a few years ago which I loved, but is discontinued and hard to find. I’ve been looking for it since then but nowhere to find. So thinking about that, I said:

“Okay… you got what I need, huh? Do you have Mariela Burani’s perfume?”

She quickly grabbed a big trash bag full of stuff, and BAM! There was the perfume! She had what I needed. Then she said:

"This discontinued! No more! Original, sealed… I give to you for $35 dala!”

Wow! I love Chinatown! But the price wasn’t right. So I said:

“Nay, I’ll give you $20 for that.” - I know the offer was probably too low but that’s part of the business game… Watch and learn, ladies and gentlemen!

“I give it to you for $28 dala!” - She replied.

“$22!”

“Okay, $25 dala!”

“Alright, I’ll leave then. Thank you!” - I said walking away slowly, until she said...

“Okay, okay! $22!”

“Sold!”- I said grabbing the perfume violently.

But wait! That’s not what I came here for! Oh, well. I proceed with the purse (or purses). Chinatown is probably the fake purse capital of the US. I think there are probably more purses than people here in this neighborhood. Walking down Canal Street (or ‘Purse Street’, I should say), you can find lots, and lots, and lots of stands of all sizes. And hidden behind those purse stands, there are even more purse stands. They have any kind of purse you can imagine... I even found them made out of pompoms!

I saw a beautiful brown purse in a stand that looked much like a garage. There were purses everywhere of all shapes, sizes and colors. The salesman was actually a man, a very big man who considered himself a ‘handbag connoisseur’… or not. I pointed at that beautiful brown purse, and he said:

“Soft leather, classy, good size, it closes, it opens… $28 dala!”

Wow. It OPENS and CLOSES… I thought this guy was an expert. After a few minutes of ‘business talk’, I got the purse for $19. Deal!

I saw another purse which I liked the style but not the ugly purple it had, so I asked the man if he had other colors available. He looked up and down at me suspiciously for a few seconds (he probably thought I was a cop or detective) and then told me to join him to the back of the ‘stand’. He carefully grabbed another black trash bag which contained lots purses in all sorts of colors AND all with a (fake but just like the original) logo of a famous brand I am not even going to mention.

Chinatown is a great are for picture taking. You can find very exotic and colorful items that look great in pictures, but make sure you ask for permission! Most Chinese salespeople don’t like the picture taking.

After an entire day at this wonderful neighborhood, I ended up riding the subway and the bus back to NJ with my hands full. I bought: 2 purses, 2 pashminas, 4 'Mont Blanc' pens, 1 jade ring, 3 bracelets, 2 Chinese pillow covers and my hard-to-find perfume... all this for less than $75 dollars.

What a fun day this was!

A Vacation In Pictures: The Museum (Part 2) - Random Pictures Around The City

Here are some more pictures I took during our visit to the Metropolitan Museum:











Random Pictures around the city #1:
If you want to lose weight fast, you just have to get into LaBOMBA diet! You can easily loose 3 to 10 pounds in 3 days! ["Dr." recommended...]

Random Pictures around the city #2:
Did you see the news yesterday? A steam pipe installed in 1924 and located in the intersection of Lexington Av. and 40 Street, ruptured in a thunderous explosion, sending steam, water and debris shooting outward and sending clouds of smoke, dust and bad smell at the height of the evening rush.
Well, it just so happened that I was broadcasting live for The Pompomist from that same intersection the day before, at around the same time. Crazy...


Random Pictures around the city #3:
Hey everyone! This is a deal you cannot miss! Drop down everything you're doing right now and drive or fly to NYC! There's a SUPER sale at a convenience store in Midtown, Manhattan where you can buy 3 taquitos for the price of 3!


[Picture taken at the new NYC Kwik-E-Mart... you read right! It actually exists!]