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The beginning of life, journey to Parenthood
Know what are the available fertility treatment options for you.
Posted: 07 Jun 2017 Updated: 27 Feb 2018
Are you hoping to be a parent soon but have problems conceiving? Join us on 1 July for an info-packed session with fertility specialists from Thomson Medical. These experts will give you all the facts, findings and fertility treatment options available for you in both Western and Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Venue: StyleXStyle Vibes Cafe, Level 3, Mediacorp Campus, 1 Stars Avenue, 138507
Registration Fee: $22 (Refreshments provided)
This is a bilingual seminar suitable for individuals and couples who are interested in better understanding their fertility, so that they can evaluate all the options available to them.
Places are limited. So register today!
Topic 1: What is infertility and what fertility treatment options are available?
Synopsis: Infertility prevents a couple to conceive a child. Medical Director Dr Loh Seong Feei will elaborate on this condition and suggest ways you can boost your fertility with the treatment options available.
Topic 2: Acupuncture and Fertility: How it works.
Synopsis: Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), which includes the use of acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine, has a rich history in treating infertility, as well as plenty of success stories about improving the pregnancy rate. TCM Physician Ms Chen Fang will share details on how TCM treatment can boost fertility.
Topic 3: What happens in the IVF Lab?
Synopsis: Your IVF journey should not be mysterious as the laboratory is an important part of the IVF process. To help you better understand your chances of success, Head & Chief Embryologist Dr Ethiraj Balaji Prasath tells you what goes on in the lab and the science behind growing embryos in-vitro.
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Speakers' Profiles
Dr Loh Seong Feei was Head of the Reproductive Medicine Department and Director of the KKIVF Center before joining Thomson Fertility Center as its Medical Director. During his tenure at KKIVF, he helped shape the center into the biggest IVF centre in Singapore. From 2008 to 2010, the center performed a few thousand IVF cycles with good pregnancy success rates. He believes in a holistic and problem-oriented approach to the treatment of infertility. Dr Loh, who been instrumental in developing reproductive surgery, has treated many patients with endometriosis, uterine fibroids and tubal disease. He has helped many couples realise their dreams of becoming parents to date.
He believes that fertility treatment should be patient-centered and patient-friendly and that fertility programmes should be tailored to the needs of each individual couple.
Ms Chen graduated from the Nanjing University of TCM with a Masters in TCM Diagnostics. Following Professor Wu Cheng Yu from Nanjing University of TCM, she has a keen interest in TCM Gynaecology and internal medicine management according to individual constitution.
Ms Chen is a fully registered Traditional Chinese Medicine Physician with the TCM Practitioners Board and a member of the Singapore Chinese Physicians' Association.
Dr Balaji is Chief Embryologist of the IVF lab at Thomson Fertility Centre. During his 17 years as KKIVF's chief embryologist, he managed the IVF and Andrology labs, as well as the National Sperm Bank of Singapore. Dr Balaji, who has published and presented numerous papers, has been invited to speak at more than 25 national and international conferences. He was an Adjunct Lecturer at the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School from 2009 to 2011). Part of the Editorial Committees of three international journals, he is also a member of the Pro-term National Oversight Committee on Human Animal Combination Research, MOH, Singapore.
Dr Balaji, who has trained many doctors and embryologists in IVF lab techniques, played a leading role in Singapore's first pregnancy and live birth from Laser Assisted Hatching. His most recent achievement was the world's first live birth from frozen-thawed embryos obtained from a surgically-removed cancerous ovary.
For enquiries, email to hello@smartparents.sg


Tijana manages to catch up with Terry Vision to share her world of love and affection with ESC Insight's Senior Interviewer… Do you ever get the feeling Terry is a bit of a National Treasure for the Macedonian singers?
Meanwhile Terry is having some terrible flashbacks and visions.
Terry Vision catches up with the mythical singer Molly to run through the ESC UK Performers checklist.
Portugese songs are known for two things at Eurovision… starting a revolution and never finishing higher than fifth.
Does ESC Insight's Senior Interviewer Terry Vision think that Suzy has what it takes in 2014, or should she head back to the cabin staff rota at Emirates Airlines?


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Creating a COVID-Proof Building Materials Brand
Even during COVID, manufacturers want to know how to get closer to their customers and learn the real problems that they need help solving. The opportunities to meet face-to-face are less frequent, but that doesn't mean you can't still be present as a trusted partner.
More About This Episode
In this episode, Zach and Beth talk to Sebastian DeGregorio, Business Strategy Manager at Allura, about what they're doing to market and sell during and post-COVID and how they're supporting the channel.
Zach Williams:
If you're a manufacturer wondering how you can use the situation around COVID to help you get closer to your customer and learn the real problems that you need to help your audience solve, this is an episode for you. On today's episode we bring on a manufacturer who's doing that very thing by getting in front of their audience to learn their pain points, their problems, and how they can help them sell effectively in today's market. They share some great stories around simple marketing tactics that you can implement today without a lot of effort or man-hours. All right, let's get into the episode.
Welcome to the Smarter Building Materials Marketing Podcast, helping you find better ways to grow leads, sales, and outperform your competition. And now, here are your hosts, Zach Williams and Beth PopNikolov.
All right, everybody. Welcome to Smarter Building Materials Marketing where we believe your online presence should be your best salesperson. I am so excited about today because we've got my cohost back on the show with us. We've got Beth PopNikolov. Beth, you are back in action, back at Venveo. Beth, tell everyone why you've been gone. It's not because of COVID.
Beth PopNikolov:
Zach was nice enough to give me a three-month vacation. So I just chilled.
HR nightmare red alert. Ah.
I was on maternity leave, just staring into the eyes of the world's cutest baby for the last three months while the world burned down around us, basically.
What's your baby's name? Share with our listeners.
His name's Forrest Callan. He is the cutest, squishiest thing you've ever seen in your life.
And how much hair does he have? Does he have more or less-
So much hair. So much hair.
For our listeners out there, Beth has two boys and the immediate reaction when you see one of her babies, it's like, "Oh, my gosh, it's so cute. Oh, my gosh, that is the most hair I've ever seen on a child."
Full heads of hair, 100%. And it never falls out. Like lots of people who... Yeah. Never falls out. It just continues to grow. Just giant heads of hair on really cute babies.
That's so great.
We're going to make some newborn hair gel. Going to be our next product.
That's great. Well, I'm pumped you're back on the show. As I mentioned when we were prepping is, I've gotten multiple emails and conversations with people while Beth was out. They're like, "Hey, where's your really smart cohost?" And I was like, "Um, am I not smart? Why do you have to put that adjective in there?" Like...
I'm really glad because I listened to the podcast while I was out and you did so well without me, I was concerned. I was, "You don't even need me anymore."
Oh, I definitely do.
Thanks for letting me back, regardless.
Absolutely. Well, we're really excited about today's guest who's going to be sharing with us about what they're doing to market and sell during and post-COVID and how they're supporting the channel. We've got Sebastian DeGregorio on the show this day. He's the Business Strategy Manager at Allura. Welcome to the show, Sebastian.
Sebastian DeGregorio:
Thanks for having me.
So for our listeners, why don't you just kick us off, give us a little bit of your history and how you made it into building products.
Sure. So I actually started out in marketing in a nonprofit, and then after several years of that, when I got a master's and went into management consulting where I did performance improvement, shortly after a two-year stint there, I started a technology startup focused on trying to match builders with home buyers. It was somewhat of a platform type of business and that didn't work out too great, but it helped solidify my love for construction and building. So I found a great company called Allura and I started in their strategic planning group. And then my role shifted into being more towards on the commercial side of the business. Yeah. So, today I'm largely focused on sales, marketing, growth initiatives, new products, new market entry, things like that.
You know what I'd be interested in, if there's anything that you learned during your time working on this start-up technology of marrying homeowners and builders that you bring into your marketing when you're trying to reach homeowners and builders.
Absolutely. Yeah. There's lots of things. So, with homeowners, because it's the most important decision it feels like to them that they're making, at least financially, they're very careful and very risk-averse about the whole process. And I think the thing that killed us was, what we were offering was so drastically different from what people are used to that it was too scary for them. So there's a need in the buying process for homeowners to feel secure with the process, with who they're talking to, with the thing they're listening, and anything that maybe raises a flag, I think folks will push away from, or not want.
And then the flip side with the builders, it's different for the builders, right? They just altogether do not have that same feeling. They're building something, they're trying to get it up quick, they have their cap tables that they're paying attention to, and they're trying to get out. So on their side, actually, there's resistance to change, too. And I think this is why our industry by and large hasn't changed in 80 years. Even the methods of construction haven't changed and guys like Integra and others who are pioneering this change, it's an uphill battle. It's not easy. And some of these technologies, like offsite construction, factory-built homes, these things have been around for 120 years. We used to be able to order a home through a Sears catalog.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You know what I'm saying? Anyway, today when I'm looking at Allura's marketing and I'm thinking about the blog post and things like that, and when I've got my editor hat on-
So good. Yum.
... those types of things are very much in my mind about, how is this message making this person feel secure? Why should they trust us with what we're saying? Is there something in here that, not just is valuable information, but is there something in there that's building that trust factor, building that relationship with them that then they'll want to buy?
So obviously Sebastian we're here to talk about how you guys are handling, continuing to see steady growth or continuing to grow your, either customer relationships or sales during COVID-19. Obviously a couple of months ago the whole world exploded a little bit. Tell us about how that was received within Allura and what you guys have done to be able to reach your pro channel during this time.
Yeah. Great question. To tell this story, I want to back up to the latter part of last year. Every year Hanley would publish this brand survey where they measure how building professionals recognize certain brands, and what was nice about that, it was a little bit of a wake-up call to us about where we stood, not just in fiber cement but in the industry at large. And so that kicked off with us a lot of internal discussion around what it is that we're doing and what do we want to be in the future. And one thing that we realized is, we probably weren't doing a good job of making clear how we're different from the competition. And so in the beginning of 2020, we actually launched a new tagline for Allura, which is making the material difference and making a material difference is actually the way we've been doing things all along, and it's basically clarifying to the industry how we're different from our competitors and what we're about.
And so, in light of that, we had a lot of strategic initiatives that came out of the tail end of 2019, both in R&D and marketing and sales. And so when COVID hit, COVID has been very interesting. I think what COVID has done, at least on the building side and not just to people personally, is kind of exposed maybe where your business was at and where certain things were. And I view the last two-and-a-half months as a pause, and everything went to a screeching halt. And for a materials manufacturer supplying builders, that was a pretty significant two-month halt because those are some very core months to our revenue and whatnot.
And so as we went into it, obviously we energize our sales force to continue to work the way they could while observing all the CDC guidelines. But during that two-month pause it really gave us an opportunity to get back to working on what's important. It's easy in your day-to-day to get stuck into working on what's in front of you, what's kind of burning, but this period has been good because we've been able to touch many things that really needed to get touched. So one thing I'll say is, I was thinking about one of the core things we try to focus on, and at least in the marketing side, is this idea of relational versus transactional. So anytime we create a marketing piece or we hold some event or we're doing something, we think about how does this thing help us build a relationship with that audience, versus, "Hey, merely something like a customer requested something, let me give them what they're looking for."
So in light of that, our business prior to COVID a big part of relational was face-to-face, was our salespeople going out, meeting with customers, meeting with prospects, being in the channel, meeting builders. And I think that idea of face-to-face has changed, right? Whereas maybe face-to-face before was, the standard was, "Let me get in my car and drive to you and get in front of your actual face," face-to-face now, I think probably to use, I hate to use this word, but the new norm might be virtual meetings becomes the default. So we've done some things to help ourselves adapt to this face-to-face interaction and we've taken what we've learned and thought about, "Okay, how can we provide more value to our customers? To our channel partners? How can we provide more value a little bit further down to builders, installers from Allura, from our website, to help builders maintain that face-to-face interaction and build those relationships?"
And so, one thing we've done is, "Okay, well, no doubt some of our partners are going to be using virtual meetings. How can we help them speak to Allura's products and how can we help train them so that they can impact their business in a good way?" And so we launched a series of videos called Lots of Know-How. It's a kind of play on word, right? Lots, like lots that you build a house on.
I love that.
So we had our salespeople actually shoot videos from their home, much like it would look like if they were sitting in a virtual meeting with them, and they each grabbed a topic and they went through different things like product knowledge or, "Hey, here's some tips when you're engaging a builder on how to speak to fiber cement," or, "Here are the benefits of Allura fiber cement over the competition," or over different material types.
And so there's somewhere around 17 to 22 videos that are hosted on our website that are there basically providing a bit of training, a bit of sales instruction, a bit of product knowledge to our partners so that when they're having their virtual meetings with builders or other people, they can speak to the benefits and value of Allura fiber cement and help them close more business.
So where would I find these videos?
You can go to allurausa.com/lots-of-know-how.
I want to check that out. That's really cool. So if I hear you correctly, paraphrasing, you took the approach of saying, "Hey, let's use COVID as an opportunity to, number one, not only continue to find ways to get in front of our audience, but continue to shift your messaging and your marketing to support your audience, to sell more effectively to their audience."
That's right.
Love. So smart.
It's like what we always like to say, like BthroughB, not B2B, like you're selling through to the channel. Talk to us a little about the response that you're hearing from builders and the channel around this approach. Are you hearing anything from them saying, "Hey, we really like this," or are they still trying to just figure out the, for lack of a better term, as you mentioned, the new normal? What kind of insights are you hearing from builders across the industry?
Well, the main target with these videos has been our dealers and distributors, and their reps love it because many of them might be new to their company or that some time has lapsed and they just need a refresh on their knowledge of the product. And some others just very much thankful that, a little bit of coaching about what matters to builders and what matters to installers. And so, sometimes just hearing how somebody might approach that sales pitch versus the way you've been doing it, you pick up tips.
And then some of the installers actually we've shared these videos with, because we do have a couple of videos in there about installation, best practices and tips, tricks, things like that, how to best store fiber cement on the job site. And so several of those installers have told us, "Hey, this is really great. I never thought about having a special cutting table to help protect the paint coating on the fiber cement and flipping it over and cutting it this way." So, very good, strong response across the board.
What I like about this idea is, is candidly, Sebastian, if I'm just being real with you, like "This, isn't a revolutionary idea."
I mean, don't hear that the wrong way. But this is the thing I've heard from a lot of manufacturers is, "Oh, my audience is at home. They have no excuse." And I say something like, "They have no excuse to not meet with you." And instead of being concerned about, "Oh, my gosh, am I going to lose their business?" You're trying to help them build their business. I think that if you can always take that approach, always view your business through that lens, it's going to help that relationship component that you guys it sounds like you're really focus on. Is that right?
That's right. I mean, again, with the making the material difference launch, we very much adapted a mindset to try to outperform our competitors in every way possible. And so one of our core ideas with our performance, with outhustling, and so we thought to ourselves, "How can we be proactive in continuing to build our relationships during COVID?" And this was one idea that was generated from the sales team. So it was very much... This was not a top-down thing. I'm proud to say this was very much a bottom-up idea that we executed, and it's been really great.
Okay, first of all, I love so many things that you've just said, I will be stealing outhustle because we talk a lot about hustle. I've never heard anybody say outhustle, and I really, really like it. I will be saying that from now on. So I want to go back to what you said at the very beginning, because you actually started by saying, "At the end of 2019, beginning of 2020, Allura was really looking at, what do you need to do to better position yourselves in the market?"
And the two things that I like of what you said that I want to get you to talk just a little bit more about is, one, you decided to be very intentional in the year 2020 about how you went to market, how you partnered with your dealers and distributors. And, before I get to my question, I just want to say what I love so much about what you've shared is, you as a company have taken this moment to be introspective.
And I think instead of just going straight to the hustle, which doesn't always pay off, right, and just scrambling, you guys have said, "Okay, what do we need to reevaluate based on how things have shifted so that we can be successful in the long-term and help our partners be successful?" I'm obsessed with that viewpoint. It's incredible. So, what I'd love to hear you talk about is, you guys went into this year being very intentional, but during this time of halt, as you said, what have you seen that's been able to continue because you were being intentional in your marketing beforehand?
Ooh, that's a great question. I would say as far as the tactical execution side, we haven't stopped any of our social media marketing. Some of our... We do a bit of light advertising on digital, those things haven't stopped. Also, we have not stopped trying to be focused on content and providing content to different audiences through our blogs or through other means. And I'd say those things, as far as the sales side, I can't say that much has changed in terms of activity. Like we've still been able to get with customers by virtual means. Yeah. I'm hard-pressed to think of something that really has been impacted.
Sebastian, if I can have you put your futurist hat on, which, by the way, I want that title. I like your title a lot.
Futurist is so baller.
I want to know, how do you achieve that title? I've been reading articles about futurists and like what they're predicting, and the great part about being a futurist is no one remembers if you're wrong. It's like being a weatherman.
Yeah, exactly. It's only-
And my viewpoint of that is very small. I don't know enough about futurists, so please don't judge me if I'm completely off base. But the thing I really like to hear from you about as we wrap up the show is, what do you think is going to completely change because of COVID? And what do you think is going to go back to the status quo? I think is a better way of asking that. I'd really like to hear your perspective on that and how you guys are planning for it.
Yeah, that's interesting. When this thing started I was able to pull some data from some of our industry partners and worked with other people within Allura. And we built several different models, one of which basically iterated outcomes, like 10,000 outcomes. And it's funny, when you build these things, you have a timeframe, right, a year, and you look at, "Okay, what's the impact going to be on a year?" And, well, I think everyone seems to agree within the industry that at least in 2020 we're going to see a 30 to 40% impact on the total volume of new home constructions. So we thought about that and we had to take some steps to ride through that, and there's still a lot of uncertainty, right? Some kind of vaccine is probably a year away, in reality, is what a lot of doctors and the CDC is saying.
So we expect that a lot of the social distancing is still going to be in effect to a certain degree. And, to be honest with you, I think the means of face-to-face, as I started out at the beginning, I think that has changed for business. I think in the past it maybe wasn't as acceptable in our industry. If you were in a sales role to meet virtually, I think the expectation was probably somewhat that you go down to the retail level, you meet face-to-face with the builder. But I think that this last two, three months has opened people's eyes to, in a sense, you can be slightly more efficient if you do a mix of virtual meetings. And so our plan is to very much try to continue to do these types of meetings.
Why? Because it actually makes us more responsive to our customers. I don't have to travel to go see you if it's not necessary, or I can get on a face-to-face call with you immediately and help you solve that issue you're having. And so we've set this as a target. This is something that we're going to do. And so we've actually taken steps to support this. And one thing that we're doing of the many things that were borne out of COVID is, we're going to be launching a chatbot. Again, something, as you said before, like video is not that groundbreaking, right? It's not revolutionary. But one of the things that we're wanting to do or how we're going to leverage that chatbot is to give our customers and give prospects or people who have questions, a direct channel to connect with all the talented people within Allura. So if you've got a question about, "Hey, where can I buy this product?" We're actually going to be developing a new internal role, kind of a customer success/inside sales role to help answer those questions.
Or you're a current customer and you need to get said material at this date. Well, you can reach out directly to the chatbot. Or you're a builder and you're very interested in Allura but you want to meet with someone. You could be able to set a time on a rep schedule to meet that same day. So finding ways really to close the distance and speed up our ability to be able to respond to different types of people with different types of questions, is I think one way that we've changed our business. And I think it's something that's going to be long-term despite, at some point, the social distancing is going to be relaxed. This is not Allura's official position. My official position is that I think people are going to get back to normal later on this year. But I think you'll see a difference amongst people in terms of their level of comfort. I think you'll see people walking around with masks still for the next-
Oh, have you been to Home Depot recently?
Yeah. Yeah.
Oh, I mean, this is not political at all, but I just think it's funny. Like America is social distancing on their own terms and some scenarios are like, "Oh, I'm going to do social distancing unless I've got a project I've got to do in my house or in my yard. And in that case I'm going to drive as quick as I can to Home Depot." Like that's... I'm not criticizing anybody. Please don't hear that the wrong way. But I think, to your point, America is doing it a bit and this isn't everybody, but America is doing a bit on their own terms.
If I were Home Depot, I'd spend a whole bunch of money to prevent sports from happening, because if you think about it, all the men have been home and the only reason that the honey do list is getting knocked out is because there's no sport.
It's so funny. Oh, that's my favorite thing in the world.
Home Depot and Lowe's should develop a cabal and like just stop sports somehow.
So my last question for you, and you've got to answer this in one word, okay?
IBS 2021. Is it going to happen?
Yeah. Now, is everyone going to attend?
No. That's it. I want to really cut the episode right there. No. Yes. I'm just kidding.
What do you say, Zach?
Do I think it happens? Yes, I do. I think it's because it'd be economically catastrophic for the organization that puts it on.
But to Sebastian's point, are there going to be a lot of people that go? I mean, also, it's in Orlando, which, it's not the best venue. I will say it'll probably get easier to get in and out of the Convention Center because there's going to be less people.
Yeah. But, then, what does this value become?
Sebastian, this has been awesome. If someone wants to get in contact with you, what's the best way for them to do that?
Well, I won't put out my email or cell phone number out there, though I would welcome talking to people. But the best way to get in touch with us is, you can email us at [email protected], E-L-E-M-E-N-T-I-A, .com.
That's great. Awesome. Again, thank you for coming on the show and if you want more great content like this go to venveo.com/podcast. Until next time, I'm Zach Williams alongside Beth PopNikolov. Thanks everybody.
You've been listening to Smarter Building Materials Marketing with Zach Williams and Beth PopNikolov. To get the resources mentioned in this podcast, visit venveo.com/podcast. Thank you for listening.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


The subject of fashion seems to be a polarizing one. It is as exhilarating for some as it is alienating for others. I've spent many of the past years operating with one foot in the fashion world and one foot in the technology world -if you define these as worlds as I do because of their distinct language, ideology and culture- and it hasn't been a comfortable balance.
When I moved to San Francisco in 2005, I arrived with 43 pairs of amazing shoes. There were kitten heels and wedges and platforms and ballet flats in a rainbow of colors and assortment of styles. I also had a wardrobe to match, complete with vintage, indie designers, classic pieces and a smattering of luxury designer elements. By the time I left San Francisco, I had 6 pairs of shoes (3 of them athletic) and a rather impressive collection of t-shirts and hooded sweatshirts. What caused this drastic shift in style? In a phrase: the desire to fit in.
Though the article itself was problematic in many ways, it does underscore the contempt of fashion by the tech set. When I arrived on the scene in my tangerine pants suit and lime green pointy-toed kitten heels (I really loved those shoes), I stood out, but not necessarily in a good way. So over the four years I lived in San Francisco, my style completely assimilated to the locally accepted uniform: jeans, t-shirt, hoodie and practical shoes. The more I assimilated, the more I was accepted and my clothes no longer stood in the way of my career.
"San Francisco doesn't do fashion," a fellow technology entrepreneur once told me. But I disagree. In fact, there is a strong fashion sense in San Francisco. Webster's dictionary describes fashion as "a prevailing custom, usage or style." If San Francisco didn't 'do' fashion, it would have been more than acceptable for me to dress in colorful vintage outfits. And though the prevailing style is casual and understated, it is a fashion.
The question of fashion is not a fashionable one among intellectuals...Fashion is celebrated in museums, but among serious intellectual preoccupations it has marginal status. It turns up everywhere on the street, in industry, and in the media, but it has virtually no place in the theoretical inquiries of our thinkers. Gilles Lipovetsky, The Empire of Fashion: Dressing Modern Democracy, (Oxfordshire: Princeton University Press, 1994) 2-3.
Academics and scholars have this in common with technologists - a disdain for what they deem as the frivolity of fashion. But the root of this disdain runs deeper in our psyches than the disdain of consumerism. In fact, the root of this disdain runs back to Plato and was underscored by the writings of 17th century philosopher and rationalist, René Descartes.
In 1647, Descartes started, but did not finish a treatise called The Description of the Human Body, wherein he describes the human body as a machine that does the bidding of the mind. Most of us are familiar with the saying "mind over matter", which has come to mean that our thoughts can overcome the limitations of our bodies. This is a good way to summarize the theory behind Descartes mind-body dichotomy (or dualism). If the body is only a vessel, then the mind is superior.
Though through science we realize that the body and the mind are one -both being physical and mental-, the core philosophy of dualism perseveres. That which is related to the mind is seen as important and worthy. That which is related to the body is seen as shallow and frivolous. But Descartes did not start this philosophical thread. Many religious teachings that are centuries old, such as Taoism, Buddhism and Hinduism, speak of dualistic categories - one which is feminine and one which is masculine. And while the mind and thinking are associated with the masculine, the body and feeling are associated with the feminine.
You don't have to be religious to think in these dualities. That women love to shop and own too many shoes and that men hate shopping and don't know how to dress themselves are common jokes. And though I'm not going to argue with this -in my household, we toe this gender line without irony- what I take issue with is that the love of shopping and shoes is seen as a negative action while anti-shopping and anti-fashion is worn as a badge of honor.
Because fashion itself is disregarded as frivolous and unimportant while it is being tied to the feminine, I would think that the defense of fashion is a feminist issue. But even feminists are polarized over the issue of fashion. Is it fashion a freedom of expression worn on the body by women? Or is it an industry that profits off of our insecurities and keeps us distracted so we fail to think bigger? These are good and valid questions and I struggle with them myself.
Academics, scholars, technologists and everyone else who works with their minds on a day to day basis will naturally value the tool of their trade. To think about how one's jacket fits (or even to wear a jacket in the first place) would take valuable thinking time away from bigger problem. This is akin to feminism questioning the distraction of fashion. It's a valid point. Why should it matter what you are wearing when you are creating the next Facebook or discovering a new quark?
During my residency in San Francisco, I learned that anti-fashion is a fashion and there is as much judgement towards someone who likes to express themselves through what they wear as there is in, say, New York City. In New York you may be judged for wearing last year's fashions, but in San Francisco, you may be judged for wearing THIS year's fashions.
Without completely unpacking my own baggage around fashion, I'm not certain if I like to shop because of something innate that drives me to hunt for clothing like it is a new art piece or that I'm heavily influenced by the marketing machine of the fashion industry (probably a little of both). What I do know is that I'm not alone. We all have baggage around fashion. And because we do, much like Gilles Lipovetsky, I'm incredibly interested in what that means and want to explore the influence fashion has on our lives.


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Indian-American violinist Robert Vijay Gupta joined the Los Angeles Philharmonic in June 2007 at the age of 19. Prior to joining the orchestra, Gupta received a Master's degree in Music from Yale University and a Bachelor's degree in Biology from Marist College. Parallel to his undergraduate studies, Gupta attended the Manhattan School of Music and the Juilliard School of Music, Pre-College Division. Gupta made his solo debut at the age of eleven in Tel Aviv with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Zubin Mehta.
About This Talk
Violinist Robert Gupta, founder of the Street Symphony organization, discusses about empathic consciousness, a shared human experience that we can access by listening to beautiful music.
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This page displays sold house prices for Hazel Lane in Bristol.
Hazel Lane in Rudgeway, Bristol consists predominantly of detached houses. Properties on Hazel Lane typically have values around £500,000 - £650,000, but larger detached houses can command upwards of £650,000.
Map showing Hazel Lane in Bristol.


Vomero is one of the poshest residential areas in Naples. It's up on top of the hill, away from the madding crowds. The hillside is very steep, literally a high wall that keeps the plebs out. Traditionally people use a funicular train to move up and down to the old city below (you can take the metro now too).
I don't come up here very often but in 2015, I was working in Vomero for a couple of days so I tried out a few of the local institutions. The first two are near or on Via Cimarosa, by the funicular station of the same name.
This is one of the best friggitoria's in Naples. Their fritture include Frittatine di Maccheroni (fried pasta with egg), Suppli di Riso and Arancino (both kinds of rice balls), Crocche (potato croquettes) and Graffa (sweet doughnut made of flour and potato) amongst others.
…a frittatine di maccheroni with a cold beer which was oh so good (A).
This is an old school (since 1915) posh restaurant and pizzeria with waiters in formal white tunics.
The Margherita di Bufala I had was made with fresh pomodorini. It was good, but I prefer a tomato sauce base for more consistent flavour (B).
To drink a bottle of Forst (B), a German beer I'd not had before.
Total cost €16.50. An experience worth having but I'll try something else off the menu if I come again.
It's a bit of a hike up the hill but it's worth it for the best Japanese food I know of in Naples. This is probably because the chef, a friendly English speaking chap, is actually Japanese. That's not to say chefs of other nationalities can't make good sushi but I have yet to come across one who can match the best Japanese chefs. As he put it, 'they have different hands'.
I had the Chirashizushi Salmone which was orgasmic (A+).
I followed up with two salmon and avocado Temaki, also wonderful (A). With a jug of hot sake and a beer the bill came to €33 which I think is very reasonable.
I lived in Japan for a few years and became addicted to sushi. There's very little that makes me happier than reliving favourite food memories like this. I just wish the restaurant was easier to get to.
This five star hotel has a lot of history, and an amazing view of Chiaia and the Gulf of Naples, which is the reason I came. I can't afford to stay here but I can just about afford to eat in the George Restaurant or have a drink in the Bidder's Bar which are both on the top floor in the roof garden.
Unfortunately I was seated right next to a loud American family who were making a real racket. I moved to the bar only to be sat next to two Italian men arguing. I gave up at this point and went elsewhere to eat. On the plus side it saved me a bit of money and I still got to see the view even if it was just for a few minutes. It would be a good place to go with a date and watch the sun go down.
This entry was posted on January 31, 2016 at 6:05 am and is filed under Campania, Italy, Naples, Vomero with tags Friggitoria Vomero, Grand Hotel Parker's, Jorudan Sushi, Pizzeria Gorizia.	You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.