Chelsea Rae

I just found out Liz Claiborne died yesterday morning, June 27, 2007, at 78 years fabulous. I've never met her or even seen her in person, but I felt the air get knocked out of me when I found out. Right now the cause of death is unknown, but the shock hits all the same.

She started her fashion company in 1976 Art Ortenberg (her husband) and two other parties. In 1989, Liz and Art retired as active managers, and in 1989 I was one. That fact may seem pointless, but it means everything to me. When she retired, I was too young to even read, but at one-year-old I probably knew what Liz Claiborne meant. She was the first designer I ever heard of, and when I was younger I'm sure I thought she was the be all, end all. I went shopping and my mother and grandmother would ooh and aah over a Liz Claiborne this or that. I'm not sure I've ever personally purchased anything Liz Claiborne, but the respect in her style and influence as a designer is there nonetheless. She will be missed by so many people, but the mark she has made on me and the world will always be there. I will miss you dearly Liz Claiborne, and our hearts go out to your friends and family!

Everyone knew it would happen sooner or later. CD are obviously going out of style. With the help of mp3 players and iTunes music has gone digital. Its much harder to have a album go platinum nowadays with music so easily accessed. Record companies are constantly trying out different strategies to get people to actually buy an album instead of downloading it off random websites illegally.I know this sounds preachy, but its just the truth. Anyway, The White Stripes have come up with a new gimmick to sell records. Their sixth album Icky Thump came out on the 18th and though many will buy it on itunes or trek out to a store to snap up the CD version, you can grab a limited edition Icky Thump USB Flash Drive on their webstore. Even though it coast a little more than 5 times what a CD would cost (they're $57.50 each), its totally rad because it comes with all the songs already loaded on it and you get 512MB of memory. The flash drives sort of look like the Russian nesting dolls, but they are cute in a White Stripes sort of way. Apparently the little Jack and Meg on the thumb drives are dressed in the "Pearly King and Queen" garb they wore on the CD cover.

Photo Credit: Style.com
I think this is a cool limited edition idea, but I don't honestly think it will stand the test of time. I do wonder how the music industry plans to fix the whole sales going to shit problem though. Unfortunately I have no brilliant ideas, though perhaps if you just auctioned off band members to the highest bidder they'd make some money.