Damon and Jo In Their Element

“You have to work day and night to grow your social media audience in an authentic way; you’ll only keep your following if you keep up with the good content. People will not stay following robotic accounts, and  boring pictures on Instagram. The hard work pays off in the end though, because having engagement shows that people aren’t only watching, but they want to take part in our movement.” – Jo Franco

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YouTube content creators, Damon and Jo at this very moment are embarking on incredible journeys all across the world and digitally capsuling every milestone. This candid captures the essence of their brand exuding a ray of  fun, fresh, positive energy. Damon and Jo are living their dreams and capturing it all for the world to see.

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Real Talk: Exclusive Interview with YouTube Duo Damon and Jo

Anyone can tell you that when you’re young is the best time to travel and explore the world. It often an investment that requires smart planning, the right financial means and taking a leap of faith. Meet two millennials who are traveling around the world, while balling on a budget and can show you exactly how they’re doing it.

With over 230,000 channel subscribers and over 14 million views, the popular YouTube stars Damon Dominique and Joanna Franco known simply as Damon and Jo, are killing the game. The two are founders of the travel blog Shut up and Go and the hit YouTube channel Damon and Jo. Their blog offers a look in to their travel adventures, offers advice for young college grads, video in multiple different languages and advice learn different languages culture and social media and so much more. Damon and Jo are currently filming their new interactive show “Dare to Travel” in partnership with AT&T Hello Lab’s, traveling to 8 cities, labeled “the travel show for the social media generation” says Jo. Recently, I had a chance to interview the two focusing on how these 20 something’s turned their passion in to a quantifiable business and full-time job.

How would you say social media has helped to make your business grow?

It’s been the craziest process to see such low numbers, to then witnessing an exponential growth. You have to work day and night to grow your social media audience in an authentic way; you’ll only keep your following if you keep up with the good content.  Short answer: we couldn’t be doing what we’re doing if it weren’t for social media.

As the business owner, what are your responsibilities to your brand?

We need to make sure all of our audiences are engaged. We need to make sure that the brands we’re collaborating with are happy with our content. And of course, we need to make sure we’re keeping sight of our own moral compass. It’s a learning process, and we don’t always get it right, but we always learn how to tweak things to make it wittier, easier to watch, and constantly having call to actions so people can partake in the conversation!

How do your challenges from when you first started your business differ from the challenges you have currently?

When we first started, the challenge was always obvious: how are we going to get paid, and stop working tons of jobs to just get by. Now that we’ve figured that out, the challenge is, how do we continue to grow our audience; how do we make the best, the funniest, the most inspirational content? Or, how do we balance branded content, versus the content we create ourselves. Lastly, how do we create new things for our audience that’s more than just content to entertain, and when should we start those ventures? All we know is that it’s an exciting time for entrepreneurs. You start by clicking upload, and the opportunities are limitless. 

What makes your work environment unique from other travelers or Youtubers?

I’m glad you even asked this question; a lot of people don’t even think YouTubing is a job. The reality is that it’s crazy hard to film videos, whether it’s due to lighting, or background noise you’re trying to avoid, or just coming up with new ideas each time you film. Those are all problems of an average “sit in front of the camera in their house” YouTubers. Now as travel YouTubers, you have to factor in risking getting robbed while on the road, poor wifi connections to upload, language barriers, and weather. 

If you had one piece of advice to someone trying to start his or her own business, what would it be?

Don’t sit around and wait for the perfect idea, because if you wait, you’ll be waiting forever boo boo. Honestly, it’s rough to start out, you’ll most likely have to juggle jobs that you don’t want (like we did), you’ll face criticism from friends and even family, and you’ll have to make decisions that might not get any support. Forget all of that, and go with your gut. Discipline yourself, and when things go wrong, don’t let it stop your hustle. Falling is a part of the process; the victory will taste that much sweeter.

 Connect with Damon and Jo on all of their social media platforms!
Youtube
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
Travel Blog
Snapchat: @damonandjo
Periscope: @damonandjo

WHAT A READ!: Kindred By Octavia Butler

Octavia Butler’s Kindred largely explores the journeys of Dana, a black woman from southern California who is abruptly grasped from her home and transported to the antebellum South of Maryland. Set in the late 1970’s Dana is in an interracial relationship with her husband Kevin. She is brought back to the 1800s to save one of her ancestors Rufus, so that her ancestors are born thus facilitatating her existence. Butler greatly illuminates the history of slavery through many channels such as her vivid imagery and use of science fiction, Butler conveys to us that enslaved blacks during this time actually have an identity.

The novel centers around the first person narrative of Dana’s thoughts and actions, going back and forth from California and Maryland. As Dana is placed against her will in slavery she encounters many obstacles along the way. In the opening scene, Dana is hospitalized with an amputated arm, which foreshadows event of the violence in horrors of the novel to come.

It is crucial to see that Octavia Butler does not portray the present as a place void of judgment, racism or discrimination. Race is a social barrier that needs to be broken.

The subject of time travel makes Kindred unique from other feminist’s novels. Butler gives little detail as to how and why the time travel occurs because this isn’t the focus of the novel.  A major reason why this novel can be classified as a science-fiction novel, the books has a greater meaning to it. Essentially it is far more intriguing how easily Dana and Kevin adapt to the institution of slavery. It is clear that Butler is a 1970’s feminist. She creates the character of Dana as a smart, intelligent, black woman that can take care of herself no matter the era.

Let’s Talk About Chick Flicks!

You know them, you love them- they’re known to produce uncontrolable tears (insert any Nicholas Sparks film) or a feeling of overwhelming joy. The chick flick genre believe it or not has evolved dramatically over time. The most popular chick flicks, no matter the decade tend to become classics because of the gut wrenching target that hits you the hardest: your emotions. Let’s talk about the different kinds of chick flicks that have graced the screen over the years.

In the United States the popularity and rise of chick flicks noticeably began to take a rise in the 1980’s. You know the young naïve female leads that meets a boy, falls in love but the twist in the story is that someone doesn’t want these two individuals to be together. It may be their parents in a very Romeo and Juliet type of way or a jealous ex boyfriend or girlfriend who attempts to have them hate each other and sabotage their love.

Commonly one of the main protagonist has a bigger passion which makes them unique for example, in the 1987 film, Dirty Dancing or 1983’s Flashdance, dancing plays a major role in the lives of the characters.

 

Waterworks, tragedy strikes, guaranteed tears. Some well-known films that had this effect include Terms of Endearment, and Steel Magnolias. Bette Midler’s Academy nominated film Beaches, is widely recognized for its extremely emotional wretched plotline. Most noticeably about these films are the sappy, soundtracks that add to the vastly overpowering feeling your going through as you are on an emotional rollercoaster. Midler’s rendition of the “Wing Beneath My Wings” became an instant hit after the release of the film. Originally recorded by a different artist as a country song in 1983, Bette Midlers performance in 1989 won her Grammys for Record of the Year and Song of the Year. Talk about the power a song has to change a person’s career!

ALL HAIL John Hughes! The man responsible for  creating many middle America high school drama chick flicks. He was responsible for films like Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink. Skyrocketing the careers of actors like Molly Ringwald, Rob Lowe, Demi Moore, Patrick Swayze and Emilio Estevez!

Commonalities within his films include the roles the teens portray. All different type of teens, are represented keeping true to real life. Not limited to but some of the depictions include delinquents, the stoner kids, jocks and nerds. Because films like these became so popular, they came out in large frequency in the decades to follow.

Welcome to the 1990s! Where the lie is within the love story. Movies like 10 Things I Hate About You, She’s All That and Drive Me Crazy all have storylines involving getting the girl because of a bet, achieving the goal, losing the girl and in the end realizing how superficially shallow they were, apologizing and ending up together happily ever after.

Moving into the decade of the 2000’s movies took one of two directions. Either love stories ending in tragedy or love stories were based on fantasy/ fairy tales. She’s the Man, staring Amanda Bynes and Channing Tatum was based on William Shakespeare’s comedy Twelfth Night. A Cinderella Story, and The Princess Diaries were all patterned after fairly tales. Author Nicholas Sparks has countless novels turned into film adaptations has contributed immensely to the chick flick genre. His films like The Notebook, A Walk to Remember, Dear John and The Last Song were huge box- office hits and they all have common plots of small southern state young love that ends in a tragic death of one main character. (sorry spoiler alert)

In addition to that, a sort of teen supernatural dystopian romance films has had large demand. Films based on novels such as The Twilight, Hunger Games and Divergent Series.

CHICK FLICK SPEED ROUND     

Opposite classes attract each other
“Rich girl falls in love with the poor boy or vice versa.”

Everyone in these movies are extremely attractive.

Little diversity after the token black guy or girl who’s the best friend of the protagonist.

Media products require a certain amount of repetition as well as innovation and variation to survive. This is why the chick flick genre will always be around and apart of our culture. Long live the King …Queen!

 

WHOA BABY! WHATS HIDDEN IN RESTAURANT FOOD?

If you guessed hidden calories, you’ve guessed right.

We’re talking the amount of calories you should get in an entire day and sometimes even more. With our busy lifestyles, we often like to take a break from cooking, and indulge. Where the problem lies is not how often we eat out, but rather the foods we choose at restaurants. You might be thinking to yourself, ‘ Well I’m not eating fast food, its fine’. In reality, staggering numbers for example, show a Bistro Shrimp Pasta from The Cheesecake Factory, contains about 3,120 calories. That’s about a day and a half’s worth of calories, equivalent to about 5 and a half Big Macs. To avoid packing on the extra pounds, try to stay clear of words on menus like Sizzling, Battered, Creamy, and Cheesy, and look for words like Roasted, Baked, Poached, or Steamed, that tend to offer healthier options.

AWESOME STORY ALERT!: HAIRCUT BOYS

AWESOME STORY ALERT!: BEATING THE ODDS: NYU LANGONE’S FETAL DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT PROGRAM DEFEATS A CALCULATED RISK.

Jaclyn Doell alongside her husband Nick had two months left in her pregnancy while awaiting the arrival of their baby boy in Little Falls, New Jersey when the unimaginable presented itself in an ultrasound. Following an MRI, a rare birth defect was discovered: a congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) in which the stomach, intestines, spleen and other organs push through a hole in the diaphragm crushing into the developing chest cavity. Given a 33% chance of survival, the Doell’s had a fighting chance when transferred to NYU Langone Medical Center’s Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment Program.

“The goal was to reposition the baby’s organs and patch the hernia within the first few days after birth, as long as the heart and lungs were strong enough to withstand surgery,” says Jason Fisher, MD, a pediatric surgeon at NYU Langone’s Hassenfeld Children’s Hospital of New York. Under the direction of Ashley Roman MD, clinical assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology, and her team of about 50 obstetric and pediatric specialists in the Maternal-Fetal Medicine division in collaboration with Dr. Fisher were preparing to embark on the great challenge that accompanied this pregnancy. Just 34 weeks into her pregnancy, Jaclyn went into labor. A fighting Joey Doell was born just shy of five pounds and immediately transferred to the NYU Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. (NICU)

At five days old, Dr. Fisher and his team along with pediatric surgeon Keith Kuenzler, MD, began the four-hour surgery on Joey with the risk of his size being too small to accommodate his organs, concluded successfully and left Joey remarkably stable under the immensely delicate conditions. “In the past 10 to 15 years, the fetal period has become the critical entry point for children’s healthcare in a way it never was before,” says Michelle Lloyd, vice president for children’s services at NYU Langone.

Photo Cred: of NYU Physician

Joey recovered well in NICU. As his lung capacity grew, within weeks he was off the ventilator and just after two months returned home, a remarkable four months earlier than expected. “He should live a normal life. Maybe he runs a 10-minute mile instead of an 8-minute mile,” says Dr. Fisher. For his parents, the future is bright, “Every time I look at Joey, I’m just in awe. He has the best spirit. You would never know he was critically ill. He looks like any healthy six-month old”, says Jaclyn Doell.

For more on this story visit:
http://nyulangone.org/publications/nyu-physician/nyu-physician-winter-2017

Participatory Culture: Fan Fiction in Friends

 First what the heck is it?

The great media scholar Henry Jenkins describes the key elements to participatory culture to include low barriers to participation, strong support for sharing, informal mentorship, members who feel that their contributions matter, and who care about others’ participation. In essence:

New technologies in this day and age have allowed the average person the opportunity to participate in the altering and documenting of media content that already exists. A widespread way that fans of popular culture participate in this is by creating fan fiction. In Quentin Tarantino’s Star Wars?:Digital Cinema, Media Convergence, and Participatory Culture Jenkins states,”Fan fiction helps to broaden the potential interest in a series by pulling its content toward fantasies that are unlikely to gain widespread distribution. Fans envision a world where all of us can participate in the creation and circulation of central cultural myths.”

I decided to analyze fan fiction from my favorite show, Friends. (1994-2004)

Friends helped to launch the careers of people like Jennifer Aniston, Matthew Perry and Matt LeBlanc. Hard to believe, that you wouldn’t already know, but it is about six friends in their twenties, living in Manhattan and trying to get through life. Being such a smash hit worldwide it is understandable that fan fiction exists for such a recognizable show.

On Fanfiction.net I came across many posts for the show and I chose one at random. The author of this particular post has previously written five stories about Friends. It seems as though this person takes suggestions prior to writing the fan fiction from others on the site. The author, on her own personal page says that writing is her own personal hobby and that the TV show Friends is her all time favorite show. Being a loyal and passionate lover of Friends personally, I appreciate that the author is not someone who feels as though the way the show was originally written was not right. From the start, the author, who goes by the name, MaryFriends, makes note in bold letters the changes that were made from the true story. She states the differences in her story like Ross (David Schwimmer) staying married to his second wife, Emily and living together in London rather than deciding to stay in New York City. The main difference that the author wanted to make clear is that Ross agreed to not see Rachel, played by Jennifer Aniston ever again. The story is also written from Ross’s perspective rather than an overview of all the characters as usual.

Since the writing completely changes the path of one main character, it adds something new to the story. I think the author did a fantastic job keeping the story realistic for the characters involved. They easily could have made a widely outlandish account of the characters, but they kept it within the realms of what would seem believable on Friends. These changes tell you that the desires of the fans are that they still love the show. Friends has been off the air for almost eleven years and it still has such a huge following. It’s relatable to so many people because we all go through crazy experiences with our own friends like the characters on the show. Also the show isn’t dated by its original airtime. There might be a few instances here and there but the majority of the show cannot be dated as a 90’s or early 2000’s show. Since Friends has been around for over twenty years it’s always gaining new followers. With newer generations coming from the digital age, they have extended Friends to the world of fan fiction, to show their love for the show. Scrolling through the different fan fiction stories some authors change the show drastically. To name a few. I came across people who killed off characters, changed sexualities and even wrote fan fiction about the actors behind the characters. It all depends on the author and sometimes the feedback that they receive.

Fan fiction will always be apart of participatory culture and evolve through time as technology evolves. It makes people feel a connection socially and it keeps a part of the show alive even after it has ended.

Ralph Lauren – Are His Best Days Behind Him?

Assignment written for Pace University

As stated in End of Fashion by Terri Agins, Polo Ralph Lauren was founded in 1967 and by the end of fiscal year 1999; the company had garnered sales of $1.7 billion. Ralph Lauren had captured the essence of Americana in his denim, khakis and American flag apparel positioned at the top of the kingdom of department stores such as Macy’s, Bloomingdales and Dillard’s. But has Ralph Lauren seen its glory day? Even though it was just announced that Ralph Lauren had made a personal baby bomber jacket for Kim Kardashian and Kanye West’s son Saint West, in my opinion I believe that Ralph Lauren is taking a punch financially and has not been quite as successful as it has been in the past. Below are three examples as to why this is such.

1. Ralph Lauren Shares Tumble After Company Cuts Its Forecast

Shares of the apparel designer dropped more than 20% to about $90 a share after reporting quarterly revenue of $1.9 billion, which missed expectations by 4%, says S&P Capital IQ.

2. According to the Ralph Lauren the company needs new ideas!

A lot of critics have been regarding Ralph Lauren to be out of style. In this day and age people are less concerned with staying consistent with the Americana theme that has carried the success of Ralph Lauren for the past 20 years. A lot of young people are keen to the idea that they do not have to spend $60 dollars on a pair of jeans if they can get it at a store like H&M or Forever 21 for half the price. The company needs new growth opportunities.

3. Ralph Lauren’s Lack of Mobile Strategies

Ralph Lauren needs to consider new creative ways to engage consumers, as it looks toward the next step in mobile technology. We have all seen the preppy magazine ads, but where is the companies presence on social media. Fashion companies like Balmain, Dior and Vera Wang are so social media present that you never have to think twice about their presence. In my opinion this has hurt Ralph Lauren in maintaining the success that he has rightfully earned in this industry.

Sources:

http://money.usnews.com/investing/articles/2016-02-12/why-ralph-lauren-stock-is-out-of-fashion-on-wall-street

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-02-04/ralph-lauren-shares-tumble-after-company-cuts-annual-forecast

The role of brand culture, mythology and values in the creation of a thriving fashion business

ASSIGNMENT WRITTEN FOR PACE UNIVERSITY

If you were giving advice to a new and inexperienced fashion designer in New York City, who relies upon the Garment District for all his/her textiles and materials how would you approach the situation? Rethinking Prestige Branding by Wolfgang Schaefer and JP Kuehlwein they emphasizes the role of brand culture, methology and values in the creation of a thriving fashion business. Here are three recommendations to a fashion designer wanting to make the New York City Garment District as source of inspiration.

1.     Create your dream team

The trick is finding people who believe in the vision that you have for yourself. In the end a team of people is stronger than one individual. There are so many people with passions for the fashion industry especially surrounding New York City you just have to find the right people to build your empire.
2.     It All Starts with Culture

Making the New York City Garment District as source of inspiration would give any up and coming fashion designer a basis for setting up a brand culture. According to Rethinking Prestige Branding, Ueber Brands are run by people with a strong sense of conviction. This culture is a collision of people and their context.

 

3.     Be it don’t execute it.

“Ueber Brands need to have clear values beyond their value and theu to abide by them stringently. Every business has to grow and make money but Ueber Brands make sense and radiate this sense from inside out”  (pg.184-185) Be the brand that you want to see on the market not necessarily what will generate the most revenue.

http://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/intelligence/lessons-from-the-high-street-brand-culture-and-the-retail-experience

http://fortune.com/2015/07/06/donna-karan-lifestyle-brand/

The Rise and Fall of the American Department Store

ASSIGNMENT WRITTEN FOR PACE UNIVERSITY

With the rise of department stores in the late 1970’s, every department store up incoming strategy was to position itself as the “happening” place to shop. By the late 1990’s as Americas retailing format had been growing stale and unexciting, department stores were losing ground to a new generation of discounters, specialty stores, and catalog merchants. The JC Penny Catalog, a personal nostalgic flashback from my childhood I might add, became one of the more convenient ways to shop. (Pre Internet of course) Marshalls, TJ Maxx, Loehmann’s you name it , all were peaking at the cost of the department store. Do the names Abraham & Straus and Gimbels ring a bell to you? Yes, Gimbels was the name of the department store in the movie Elf, but in actuality these are names of former successful department stores that are now defunct. Since this time of downturn, how did some of the department stores we know and love today remain to stay a float? Let’s take the department store Sears for example and look at some of the unique challenges it faces.

·      Fashion is taking a big move to the Internet. As soon as I do my daily scrolls on Instagram, Fashion Nova, Hot Miami Styles and Pretty Lavish, are among the hundreds of online fashion companies solely doing their sales online that comes up. The attraction to these brands is incredible and it is definitely a current craze of young consumers. Sears is facing the challenge of competing with these online retailers.

 

·      Customers are not coming to Sears to shop. Sears is known at one point for selling the Karsahian Kollection, which you would think would bring in customers because of the Kardashians fame and sense of fashion but the Forbes article I linked below pretty much summarizes any trip I’ve taken to Sears in the past couple of years. The stores are always EMPTY. I feel as though a tumbleweed is going to pass at any moment when I am in a Sears.

·      Sears is closing stores to cut costs as it shifts to an “asset-light” business model. The company lost nearly $1 billion during the first half of the fiscal year in a downturn that has worried some vendors and prompted a series of moves by the company to generate cash.

“Never a guarantee in retail” Len Schlesinger Harvard Business School

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-sears-holdings-redundancies-idUSKCN0IC1J720141023

http://www.forbes.com/sites/panosmourdoukoutas/2015/04/24/one-thing-missing-from-sears-stores/#3a6427dd2bb4

Do you offer any tall or plus sizes?

ASSIGNMENT WRITTEN FOR PACE UNIVERSITY

We live in a society where all body shapes are welcomed and are encouraged…. Wait but do we? Brands that offer “One size fits all” stores are popping up everywhere. Brandy Melville, for example, is a retailer that caters to teens and young women, selling clothes in a single size only.  Below attached is a Buzzfeed article that highlighted five women to try on its different “one size fits most” pieces to see how well they fit. In the end, one of the participants, Alison had this to say;

  AmericanApparel.net

“There’s clearly no such thing as one size fits all! Everyone has a different shape, and clothing stores should embrace that instead of making people feel shitty for not being able to fit what they deem to be a universal size. ‘One size fits all’ sends a message that if you don’t fit into the clothing, whether it’s too big or too small, you’re not ‘normal,’ and leads to all sorts of body dissatisfaction.”

Acccording to “Rethinking Prestige Branding Secrets of The Ueber- Brands by Wolfgang Schaefer and JP Kuehlwei”  Ueber Brands reverse the traditional marketing by reversing the brand and not the consumer.

1.    Inspire and be inspired

Think of yourself as a work of art. And present yourself accordingly. Clothing Brands should lead by example and create clothing campaigns that embrace the skin your in.

2.    Do more than you talk

Prestige is a quiet thing. A lot of one size clothes has been deemed controversial so designers have to be mindful of their content and the message that follows

3.    Be the medium that you are

Brands: Be a magnet for loyal community rather that just a vessel for products.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/candacelowry/heres-what-one-size-fits-all-looks-like-on-all#.gd44858Yl

http://stylenews.peoplestylewatch.com/2015/09/22/brandy-melville-clothing-controversy-one-size-fits-most/

Disclaimer or whatever: All Rights of Buzzfeed related content belong to Buzzfeed (duh)