Calvin Klein SF (San Francisco) Union Square store in San Francisco Shopping Center has as of this writing a display front that triggered an email from a viewer and the video above presenting its design. Personally I think it evokes racist images of lynchings, but its boarderline, so I put the question to a poll vote.
As of this writing 12 percent believe it to be racist, 36 percent questionable but not racist, 7 percent report nothing wrong with it, 22 percent don't care, and 22 percent think it's not racist at all.
The store front's a standout in a San Francisco Center dominated by mannequins that are generally white in color and positioned in normal poses; Calvin Klein's mannequins are a shade of grey so dark, it's almost black. But its not the color so much as how they're positioned and the kind of rope and knots used in the display.
I received this email below from a viewer which explains the person's shock over the Calvin Klein SF Union Square store front display in the San Francisco Shopping Center. I went over to make the video above and get your view on the display.
As I've stated in the video, it was not a good idea to approve a store front that is at best questionable. Everyone who's seen the video thus far has a reaction to it, from furled brows to frowns and raised eyebrows, the video does not make for a stoic reaction.
Why someone would do this is a question I will ask Calvin Klein's staffers in the days ahead. Indeed, the worker that talked to me through the glass admitted that she did not the racial overtones in the display until they were pointed out to her.
But for now, read the email below, then take my poll on this certainly controversial Calvin Klein store display.
The email:
Hey Zennie,
I'm kicking myself for not taking a picture (I don't usually use my phone for anything other than a phone, so it escaped me in a moment of anger), but I just got back from the San Francisco Shopping Center where I happened upon an appalling window display in the Calvin Klein store next to Bloomingdale's on the 3rd floor.
Imagine a window full of frolicking monkeys, swinging from tree branches in various playful poses, but instead of monkeys, there are mannequins wearing the latest Calvin fashions. And instead of swinging from tree branches, the mannequins are swinging from ropes finished in nooses at the ends. All of the mannequins are black. It doesn't sound like much, but I'll tell you, those nooses caught my eye in the first place, and it didn't take long to piece it all together.
Why am I sending this to you? Well, you've got a voice on several forums, and could make this very public and embarrassing for Calvin Klein. That anyone could get past the basic design stages of such a display without questioning its bad taste is unbelievable. That such displays are crafted by designers with an eye on every detail makes it even less excusable. That such displays are often dictated to stores by corporate headquarters and duplicated at all locations makes it a disgusting travesty.
If you happen by that store, or know someone in SF who could take some pics for you to post, you could shine a bright light on a very ugly message going out to the thousands of people who pass by that carefully composed collection of symbols. I was deeply offended, but rather than contact Calvin Klein so they can quietly change their windows, I figured I'd contact someone who can give it a bit more exposure.
The DA reportedly said that there was insufficient evidence to charge Merriman with assault and imprisonment. But the story told by observers goes deeper. San Diego Channel 10 reported that Tila Tequila Nguyen was jealous that Merriman was in bed with two other woman and not her!
I'm not making this up, folks! This is what Channel 10 wrote:
Sources close to the story told Vara that Tequila -- also known as Tila Nguyen -- was unhappy that she was not the only woman getting attention from Merriman, and jealousy played a role in the early morning altercation.
The sources told Vara that witnesses at Merriman's home said the three-time Pro Bowl linebacker went to his bedroom with two women.
Sources said Tequila walked into the room and Merriman asked her to join them. However, the sources said Tequila reacted angrily and threatened to have sex with a member of Merriman's entourage.
According to sources, Tequila was intoxicated, and she got naked and attempted to leave the house.
Sources told Vara that Merriman, 25, tried to stop the 27-year-old Tequila, and that is when she called 911.
Wow!
That fits more with the image "Tila Tequlia" herself presents on her website and in her videos as being a "hot" woman who has multiple personalities, enjoys the good life, including champagne, and consistently rants against haters, and talks about how all the guys want her.
You know, I really feel sorry for Nguyen because in a weird way I'm sure someone warned her that her behavior would catch up to her, and it did. Now, her personality is out there for public view in a way that she didn't expect when she called 911 while intoxicated.
It's sad that she has to go through what's going to be a blizzard of Internet chatter against her (see the Twitter tweets) . Tila's fueling it herself, stating that the DA made a reckless decision, and posting this photo...
Tila's tweeting that "We are looking for my new date!"
Oh, my God!
Shawne Merriman, focus on a good , mature business woman
Tila Tequila is the victim of a violent crime. The San Diego District attorney's decision not to press charges against Shawne Merriman for the battering of Tila Tequila demonstrates an unconscionable negligence in the discharging of their public duties. We strongly feel that justice has not been served in this matter.
Obviously, The San Diego Charger's NFL franchise brings millions of dollars in revenue to the city of San Diego, and it seems clear that other interests are being served by the DA's office than the upholding of the law. A young woman was violently beaten and choked, and the physical evidence is both overwhelming and disturbing. Tila's account of the events has remained consistent from the beginning, while Merriman's story has changed repeatedly.
Just because the DA has made this reckless decision doesn't mean that justice will not be served in this case. No one is above the law. Tila Tequila will immediately begin pursuing civil charges against Mr. Merriman and she will have her day in court."
Reads like a civil suit's coming to me.
Merriman should take a lesson from this and focus on more mature women friends who are solidly in his corner and have their own mainstream businesses.
As for Tila, I'm not sure she's going to learn anything from this, except how to call a new set of people "haters." It's good that what, in a non-Internet past, would have taken months to sort out, took less than a week today.
The lesson is that one can't abuse the legal system as an instrument to support their own insecurities. I hope observers get that message today.
Finally, Nguyen should take time to do something for those less fortunate than she. Host a fundraiser or donate to a charity and give them exposure. (Oh, here it comes.) That would go a long way toward repairing her image.
The DA reportedly said that there was insufficient evidence to charge Merriman with assault and imprisonment. But the story told by observers goes deeper. San Diego Channel 10 reported that Tila Tequila Nguyen was jealous that Merriman was in bed with two other woman and not her!
I'm not making this up, folks! This is what Channel 10 wrote:
Sources close to the story told Vara that Tequila -- also known as Tila Nguyen -- was unhappy that she was not the only woman getting attention from Merriman, and jealousy played a role in the early morning altercation.
The sources told Vara that witnesses at Merriman's home said the three-time Pro Bowl linebacker went to his bedroom with two women.
Sources said Tequila walked into the room and Merriman asked her to join them. However, the sources said Tequila reacted angrily and threatened to have sex with a member of Merriman's entourage.
According to sources, Tequila was intoxicated, and she got naked and attempted to leave the house.
Sources told Vara that Merriman, 25, tried to stop the 27-year-old Tequila, and that is when she called 911.
Wow!
That fits more with the image "Tila Tequlia" herself presents on her website and in her videos as being a "hot" woman who has multiple personalities, enjoys the good life, including champagne, and consistently rants against haters, and talks about how all the guys want her.
You know, I really feel sorry for Nguyen because in a weird way I'm sure someone warned her that her behavior would catch up to her, and it did. Now, her personality is out there for public view in a way that she didn't expect when she called 911 while intoxicated.
It's sad that she has to go through what's going to be a blizzard of Internet chatter against her (see the Twitter tweets) . Tila's fueling it herself, stating that the DA made a reckless decision, and posting this photo...
Tila's tweeting that "We are looking for my new date!"
Oh, my God!
Shawne Merriman, focus on a good , mature business woman
Tila Tequila is the victim of a violent crime. The San Diego District attorney's decision not to press charges against Shawne Merriman for the battering of Tila Tequila demonstrates an unconscionable negligence in the discharging of their public duties. We strongly feel that justice has not been served in this matter.
Obviously, The San Diego Charger's NFL franchise brings millions of dollars in revenue to the city of San Diego, and it seems clear that other interests are being served by the DA's office than the upholding of the law. A young woman was violently beaten and choked, and the physical evidence is both overwhelming and disturbing. Tila's account of the events has remained consistent from the beginning, while Merriman's story has changed repeatedly.
Just because the DA has made this reckless decision doesn't mean that justice will not be served in this case. No one is above the law. Tila Tequila will immediately begin pursuing civil charges against Mr. Merriman and she will have her day in court."
Reads like a civil suit's coming to me.
Merriman should take a lesson from this and focus on more mature women friends who are solidly in his corner and have their own mainstream businesses.
As for Tila, I'm not sure she's going to learn anything from this, except how to call a new set of people "haters." It's good that what, in a non-Internet past, would have taken months to sort out, took less than a week today.
The lesson is that one can't abuse the legal system as an instrument to support their own insecurities. I hope observers get that message today.
I had a habit of falling asleep on my couch, in part because I used my laptop there as an escape from working on my nearby desk. All the better to code my then new XFL Simworld game and catch up on the TV news, as I had a better angle to see the TV screen.
I watched KTVU Channel Two religiously, then, and "Mornings On Two" was a guilty pleasure for me. So the TV was almost always on "2" at that time; so it was the morning of 9-11.
I'd fell asleep on the couch, again, but this time I when I woke up the TV was on and I could not believe my eyes: a giant building was on fire. When I focused my eyes and ears I realized it was one of the World Trade Center towers in New York City. I could not believe it.
(Above) Bill Chackhes' video tour of "Ground Zero"
The first thing I did was call my Mom and (now late) stepfather and told them to tune in two Channel 2. The second thing I did was send emails to friends about what was happening. The third thing I did was just watch.
I figured it was just a fire as at that point, it wasn't clear what caused flames to start blowing out of the building. Then as the time passed, it was reported that a plane crashed into it, later the plane was identified as a Boeing 767. I've flown on those alot, so much so I felt as if I knew it inside and out. That's a big plane.
My mind raced. What could have happened to cause that? And as it did, and friends called me, and I watched, the second plane hit the second tower and for a time, both buildings were on fire.
I thought about my friend Dan who wanted me to work for American Express in New York, where I would have been near that building as AMEX World Headquarters was in the World Trade Center. Then I thought about Dan and how he was doing and tried to call him there - no luck.
As more time passed, and it seemed the flames from massive buildings got larger, something unexpected happened that was captured on TV - they fell, World One first, then sometimes later, World Two.
I still to this day can't believe I saw that. I just can't.
I had to get out of the house, so I walked down to Oakland's Lakeshore Avenue and to Arzmendi's where I used to have a morning coffee and pastry with the neighborhood's work-at-home types. But this time it was different.
People who usually got their coffee and whatever and drove to work in an office where still in the neighborhood. It was actually crowded, and everyone was talking about what I just saw: the destruction of the World Trade Center.
It was frankly the first time I've experienced people just bonding in a way I'd only seen after the 1989 Loma Piereta Earthquake and the Oakland Hills Fire in 1991. Yep, I was here for both of those disasters.
But the difference is you could feel America come together. Right now. Over the disaster. Man, that day hurt. Hurt alot. It hurts to have seen so many people suffer then who were in the building, and later, who were families of the people in it.
They didn't do anything wrong at all. And I'm not sure what they could have done that, even if it was wrong, would call for that kind of punishment.
It's an event that bonds people to this day. My good friend, New Yorker Bill Chachkes, who took me on his own 9-11 tour in the video above, talk about that day again and again, and again.
When Republican Congressman Joe Wilson (R - South Carolina) yelled "You lie!" to President Obama during his health care address to a joint session of Congress, he unwittingly created a new star other than himself; his 2010 Democratic Challenger, Rob Miller.
Rob Miller raised over $350,000 online since Wilson's outburst, thanks to the efforts of democratic voting group "Act Blue", and now, MoveOn.org has gotten into the game of throwing supporters and money at Miller.
According to the blog "Shotpolitics", Miller's a native South Carolinian, former Marine captain, and Iraq War combat veteran who's 33 years old. He's married with one child.
Miller was motivated to run for Congress because he observed that too many elected officials had not served in the armed forces yet were making decisions that impacted America's military. He points at Rep. Wilson as one who "is quick to introduce resolutions supporting the troops, but did nothing when our wounded veterans couldn’t get the basic care they needed at Walter Reed.”
Miller's congressional policy objectives are fairly basic: eliminate tax reductions for the super wealthy, and push for stronger ethics laws. In this, he reads as a conservative Democrat, but far more desirable than a person who openly disrespects the President Of The United States in the middle of a joint session of Congress, as Wilson did last night.
Miller's rise to stardom is the child of an incredible degree of anger toward Wilson. But even with this, Charlie Cook of the Cook Political Report doesn't think Wilson will be sunk by the torpedo that Miller's become.
"Some news accounts have noted South Carolina GOP Rep. Joe Wilson faces a "tough race" in 2010. Not so fast - this conservative seat remains relatively secure for the GOP, even after Wilson's outburst. After all, Democrat Rob Miller's 46 percent showing in 2008 was largely attributable to Obama’s strong 45 percent in the state, a factor Miller won't enjoy again.
Instead, this looks like simply more of a distraction for the GOP. Wilson's remark itself isn't likely to be a huge problem for him 14 months from now, but the instant cash it has generated should make Miller one of Democrats better-funded challengers next year."
I'm not sure Cook counted on the involvement of MoveOn.org.
I just got an email from the organization with a link to a petition which reads: "Don't let right-wing extremists hold health care reform hostage. Pass President Obama's plan, including a strong public health insurance option."
I seriously doubt MoveOn's efforts will stop at a petition. What was once a sleeply little race that wasn't expected to be a challenge for the GOP has, overnight, become one that has the attention of, and the money from, a good portion of American liberals.
Proving that a great speech does impact public opinion, a CNN / Opinion Research poll reports that 67 percent of the people surveyed supported the health care proposals President Obama described in his speech Wednesday night.
Before Obama's address to a joint session of Congress, 53 percent of the people surveyed backed his proposal. That's a 14 percent jump in support. More than seven out of ten people said the President clearly outlined his goals. 75 percent of the people surveyed believe the President will be able to pass all or some of his proposals.
