time: isn’t she fickle.
There is never a time like the present. Time waits for no one: it can be kind if you want it to be, but if you are wasteful then time will come back to bite you in the arse. It doesn’t matter who you are, because many of men/women have fallen as a result. WE often forget how much of a blessing it is to merely have something of our own – to know the things that we are passionate about. Everyday roughly four (4) million people commute into Manhattan alone for work. With a significantly high confidence level, I would say the amount of people that are unhappy with their lives, jobs, social class outweighs those that are happy and if you feel otherwise thats fine and you should stop reading right now.
Let me preface this by saying that your job does not make you. Finances aren’t for everyone and if you find peace and happiness within your life this is all that is important. However, money is needed to survive PERIOD.
Is it me or is everyone in New York City the most unhappy New Yorker that you have yet to meet? I wonder if the rest of the world is like this, I will never know because every encounter is an independent event and I try to keep an open mind about all. Although I have seen my fair share of deranged taxi drivers, angry homeless people, reckless investment bankers, untrustworthy friends, and misrepresented adults, this isn’t enough of a sample size to say people are unhappy.
Ironically enough, we were hit with a snow storm yesterday, I had just finished a great fitting with a close friend & now client, the snow was racing down aggressively almost like there was a turf war between it and the concrete – for those who don’t know please see West Side Story… It took me about 5 minutes of eating snow flakes on Washington Street to actually come to terms with the fact that the puddle in front of me was 3 feet wide and it spread around the corner so the only way around was to jump on to a pile of snow and quickly leap over the puddle. After roaming and feeling sorry for myself for about 2 minutes, I finally hunted down a taxi, you know when you’re so anxious to get in that you fail to realize there is another person in it and they aren’t done paying yet nor ready to embrace the cold… yea I was that guy.
A woman approaches me from behind, late 30’s, and she says: “Are you taking this one?” I know many many many of people who would have replied with, “Well what do you think,” but I didn’t, I said, “I was going to, do you want me to drop you off somewhere” she replied with, “I’m with a bunch of kids (3)” I said, “Well then you should take the taxi” She couldn’t believe it, her smile was ear to ear, I swear she looked just like this if you can just keep in mind that she was caucasian…
ear to ear baby
She replies, “Wow gentlemen still in exist in New York.” I was already walking away, but I turned and waved. What I did wasn’t a big deal, I’m sure that if she would have waited for another 10 minutes she could have found herself another taxi. I wasn’t really in a rush to get where I was going, not because it wasn’t an important place to be, but because these types of gestures mean everything to me. The world doesn’t revolve around me or you, but there are times when our actions can influence the world of another – seize the opportunity.
Just a quick detour, don’t worry I stopped the meter. Back to New York and the unhappy people that I share it with. As we get older, there will be more opportunity cost associated with change. Change is a funny thing because with youth we can do it almost instantly: we change sports, majors, school projects, hobbies, friends, but as you get older change gets cumbersome. I’m not afraid of change, I am afraid of what can develop if you fail to acknowledge that a change is going to come.
As I stated earlier, time isn’t waiting, so if there is something you want in this snow globe that is life go get it because tomorrow is never promised.
I cannot speak for you, because I do not know the strife, pressures, burdens associated with your change, nor the things that make you happy. Frankly, I know nothing about you, nothing at all, but if you’re reading this far well then I guess I somewhat poked your curiosity.
Sincerely,
RAF
The Morning Benders – “Excuses” Yours Truly session
My friend shared this with me.
the truest words spoken today.
“When I have nothing else I try to dream the dreams of a child’s imaginings”
- Viggio Mortensen in The Road.
but we will never be the same.
One of the most important conceptual ideas of life that I feel is too often overlooked: by young and old is knowing who you are. It’s imperative to throughly understand the concept of self-worth. Generally speaking, because the world is a big place and we do share this ground with others, people will look to dispute your ideas. It is not because they don’t believe in you, but because this is the way society has trained the greater part of our people. In order to be fully realized by, “pop” culture you must have hundreds of thousands of fanatics, obsessing about your music, but if you were genuinely here to make music then you’ve been making music since you picked up that guitar – “you git me mate?” People like to feel like they discovered something, the jury isn’t out on who “discovered” America yet, but the concept of “discovering” something where people have been living for hundreds of years is kind of pretentious don’t you think?
Moving along…
There are many that look at the world and don’t question the things around them: how John has, “X” but will never stop to think why Sally has, “Y.” I think of people like this as lab rats, because they aren’t here to hurt anyone, but simply a necessary part of the matrix as Morpheus would say. I don’t have a problem with lab rats, without people who buy into the system we wouldn’t have people that break the system. I understand their purpose, but they rarely understand mine. It’s difficult for them uncork a bottle of wine the same way we do, let alone walk in our shoes. Often lab rats need tangible proof of the things: that people like me feel. I don’t need to see it on paper to believe, the energy in people can be felt and will tell you if their passions are aligned with their heart. John & Sally wont understand the words we speak until they have been tried, proven, and tested the viscosity of its contents by the rest of you and guess what – there’s nothing wrong with that. Said persons probably have the same few things for dinner and rarely try a new restaurant. They wouldn’t know that skate wing prepared by the right chef taste more like chicken than chicken itself until they read about it in the New York Times… they will rarely step outside their comfort zone for the sake of their beliefs unless the concepts are proven by popular culture.
My friends: this is life – we cannot expect the world to conform to the way that we decide to live, but being aware of concepts like this is monumental for us. As a result of their linear thought process, John & Sally might question our decisions and attempt to define who we are, which is perfectly fine: everyone is entitled to their own opinion. What is NOT okay is for you to feel inclined to explain self to anyone. If you know who you are then you know where you are going. Although you will find more people in the world that will tell you how impossible everything that you’re doing is, you are actually proving their argument wrong as we speak (insert smiley face here). Those with little faith will soon be your disciples; when you reach your destination. Their opinions are justified with what they perceive as facts, they follow blindly, think primitively, and live meagerly.
If you know who you are then you will never need to prove who you are. For the most part everyone wants to decide who you are for you, and again that’s fine, but I respectfully disagree with the opinions of 6.5B people. Your opinions will not define me. People often ask questions about my line: prices, where do you sell, etc etc, I don’t mind sharing information at all, but to be honest, I listen to many people, but I value very few opinions. Furthermore, the people that I do acknowledge, well, they tell me, “I need to work harder and to keep creating my opportunities” they do not attempt to direct my aesthetic because they know my moral compass is aligned with my vision. Society wants us to prove to them why we are doing everything they are not: habitually, but we don’t need society because we have our own community and the currency is love, energy, passion, faith, imagination. Remember that. Although we are composed of the same things, we are not the same.
We will never be the same.
love is the answer.
RAF
Scenes from Tadashi Shoji
Mimi x James x Cameron
Tadashi Shoji's best look.
Tadashi Shoji's best look.
enjoy xx
RAF
Primary Wave Host Pre-Grammy & ML Creative Group Host Event @ The SLS in Los Angeles
Chelle x Moi x Erin
Chin Han x Moi
we need a medium. we need a platform.
I was talking yesterday with a friend, she didn’t know I painted. She said she thought I was just an atelier… I said that’s the tricky thing, people always want to label things, because they want to be able to define you. I don’t consider myself a painter, writer, atelier, I’m nothing, these are just platforms for me to share my message – hoping that one day I meet another person that can share every platform with me.
Today it might be the spoken word. Tomorrow it may be a painting. In fifteen years it might be a book or a song. The point of all of this is to share and I like to share a lot. I love my brand, but what makes me different and what makes us unique are the ways in which we express ourselves and our ability to understand your needs, wants, and lives.
xx
RAF
celebrate j. matthew rising
I have been both fortunate and blessed to call this man my friend. I was honored to celebrate with him for his birthday – quite possibly the best brunch EVER with him and some of his most intimate of friends. Enjoy.
Matthew Rising in SOHO For his birthday brunch.
Matthew couldn't be happier. More smiles.
erica scrolling through photos.
i chug water @ freemans.
annie whips into brunch.
ciao.
xx
soooo how’s a 12hr layover sound?
Ouch!!! 12 hour layover, I didn’t know they made those, the same way I didn’t know much about butternut squash ravioli was until about seven (7) years ago… So, London – I’m stuck here with you for a little while. So what shall we do on this wonderful adventure… I didn’t intend on a layover, I’m actually one of those flyers that will avoid a layover at all cost, but my direct to Africa was cancelled – I couldn’t wait to fly out till Monday so I had to connect this way. You can’t choose the cards, you just have to play them to the best of your ability.
On the surface, not much has changed here, the accents are still very attractive and the people are still cold, but that’s okay, no quarrels on my end… After lugging around my three (3) pieces of luggage (I always over pack) I finally made my way to terminal four (4) I thought I might be able to check my bags early as opposed to dragging them with me to the complimentary hotel they setup for me since I had this rediculously long layover. Unfortunately, the counter doesn’t open until four (4) hours before departure so I hung my head for two (2) minutes and dragged my stuff to the ground floor. I wasn’t upset, but my arm was pretty tired from lugging this thing around I switched terminals because Virgin Atlantic comes in at terminal three (3) and my departure was out of terminal four (4). Anyway, I found a black taxi and jumped in the driver starts to load my luggage and I hear him mumble, “My job is to drive not load luggage” I began to frown because I wasn’t aware that it wasn’t his job. Normally when I jump into a taxi with bags they help me load them, I thought it was a part of the service, I thought that was going above and beyond and was normally rewarded with a tip! Nonetheless, I smiled again as I turned on Anthem – Let it go (Anthem is gearing up to launch his EP in the next month & did I mention he is opening up for Lupe Fiasco in LA this week? More on this in its own post.)
so good.
i'm not in a rush
We arrive at the destination a hotel setup by the airline as a courtesy because of the layover. The driver had added an additional gratuity for helping me with the bags, I wasn’t offended, I tipped him on top of that and said, “thank you for your help sir.” I approach the check-in desk, “Hey, how are you doing today? I’m checking in…” She searches for my reservation, unfortunately to no avail, which was weird, so she sends me down this long corridor to speak to the manager who is sitting at a table, very nice guy. After speaking with him and an affiliate of the airline they were able to find the request, but the manager needed to approve the complimentary room was no where to be found. Time was running late, it was now 2PM and my flight out was at 10PM. I knew that if I actually got the room I would probably fall asleep, so I said thank you, smiled, walked away and called another taxi.
Before leaving the hotel I jumped on Skype with one of my first friends from college who is doing a masters in Paris, it was great to catch up and it looks like she will be interning in the city this summer which I’m very excited about…
My second cab driver of the day was much more happier. He was super talkative and gave me a little info about my destination: Notting Hill. I wasn’t upset that things didn’t work out to plan, but that’s life, it doesn’t always work out your way, but you have to roll with it. To be honest, I’m just happy to not be stuck in New York in the midst of that snow storm. This was what I was up against last night…
semak x snow x nyc
I didn’t think I would make it out, but guess I got lucky with this one. As I stated prior the first flight was cancelled so I had to jump on VS10 which didn’t take off till about 1.30AM. We sat on that runway for at least 2hrs, first it was, “defrosting” then it was the traffic, they were trying my patience, but I remained chill about it – if you let little things ruffle your feathers you’ll never get to get upset about the big things.
notting hill x g x yay!
pay here x don't litter x notting hill
Anyway back to Notting Hill, London, and the other side of the Atlantic Ocean… Arrived at my friends house gave a few hugs, left my bags and ran outside for some brunch, champagne, and some very fabulous croissants.
look left
look right
Saw Notting Hill properly and loved it.
love this alley
Boarding to Africa which will put me at 6,570 Miles in roughly a little over 24hrs.
Hugs given – 15
I need to give more in Africa!
Lots of love.