There are two major lessons I’m hearing entrepreneurs and investors are taking from this Facebook IPO. One, you can slay giants. Facebook wasn’t the first social network, just the best. And, two, absolutely that —social distribution makes money. And the best example of that, a great example perhaps, is Fab.
And another
Angie Grant was a friend of mine in 9th grade. She had a blunt-cut died black bob and wore black and white striped tights with black Creepers. She stained her lip cherry red and idolized The Cure’s Robert Smith.
At 15 Angie had found a look. She’d created a strong visual that invited ridicule and attention. I admired her greatly. And when i found out a few years back she’d died a little piece of me too also left this world.
I was thinking of Angie Grant this past weekend as I travelled to Iceland for the first time. Angie gave me Bjork’s album Debut when we were high school kids. And it changed my world. It was one of those crystal-clear moments when you easily look back and remember finding a new world.
Bjork’s Debut was a sonic melting of Icelandic oddity with disco. In it she dissected the human race and sang love songs so vivid. Volcanoes and airplanes helped explain the enormity of her elfin heart. And her visual matched that voice! She knotted her hair and wore disco boots and mini-skirts. She was alien. She was like Angie Grant, unafraid to be a clown.
Sequential albums were also great events. On Post she orchestrated both techno-pop and old-school pop in neon colors. On Homogenic she donned a McQueen kimono and sang songs in honor of her children and trapped whales. In Dancer in the Dark, her acting debut, she won at Cannes and scored an Oscar nod. And she wore that swan dress.
Just a test blog post
But then, as I often do, I began to reconsider my almost always initial internal reaction to everything, saying no. Georgi had lived two years, while at an American college, in Madrid and I know he was dying to go back. Suddenly David’s Facebook photos of hooker-looking friends in Jeremy Scott for Adidas and overly-muscular bodies, an initial turn-off, became a turn-on. I love David’s influence on me. He’s made me appreciate all over again the style and glamour of nightclubs, hookers, go-go dancers, and nightlife culture. I thought it was dead in NYC. I thought drugs had killed it. But, no, it was there. I had just traded in a yuppy lifestyle of Michelin-starred meals and weekends upstate. David’s allowed me to see, that in ever small doses, much fun exists in the world after dark.
“bitch queen”
