Janet Stilson

My Favorite Sales Person

Meet Carnation France. We first encountered each other around six years ago when my mate David and I moved to Harlem. And I've come to consider him one of the best sales people I've ever met. He's one of many different street vendors that line the wide sidewalks of my street, Lenox Avenue, also known as Malcolm X Boulevard or Sixth Avenue. (Because why have one name when you can have three?)

Carnation and his sidekick, a Jack Russell terrier named Jewel, have a lot of competition in the hood from other hawkers.There's a guy known as Soup Man, who roams all over the area, rolling his various liquid lunchtime fare whereever the spirit moves him. A bit of an elusive guy, who seems wild as the escapee parrot that's always cawing when I zoom down the side of the Hudson River on my bike. There's lot of jewelry for sale, which is one of Carnation's specialties, and some really great hat stands as well.

Please Don't Go to Costa Rica

Several years ago I visited an ancient Spanish missionary church in Orosi, Costa Rica that left me spellbound. Outside in the palm trees, there was a flicker of green wings as parrots exchanged mating calls. And inside the dark 17th century building (pictured here) there was the aromatic scent of someone who was no longer present. Only her floral perfume remained, though I kept thinking she must still be there, kneeling in the dark, whispering mysterious secrets. 

Later, as I passed the church with my guide, he told me that the Spanish conquistadors had built such churches all through that area of Costa Rica.  It's easy to see why; it's a lush tropical paradise in many respects. But the Spanish conquerers couldn't stay. The mosquitos drove them away. Or so said my guide, and it suits my fancy to believe him.

I thought of the conquistadors' experience a few times over the last month as I swatted away at mosquitos in San Ramon, a little bustling city in Costa Rica's central valley.

The New New Orleans

Anyone who knows me will recognize why I am posting this photo.  Firstly, it features a dog, and secondly, it's a scene from New Orleans, which is one of my all-time favorite cities. This photo was taken a few weeks ago at the end of the annual Barkus Mardi Gras parade. And it is one of many outstanding moments during my trip there.

A primary reason for my trip to New Orleans was to write a feature that appears on the cover of Media Week magazine today.  I had a series of conversations with executives at media companies and ad agencies in the Big Easy, and was captivated by their often harrowing stories about working and living conditions during and after Katrina. What my article focused on was how the market has transformed.

Thingsw aren't as bleak as one might imagine. In fact, ad inventory is tight for many media companies, and some are actually pulling in as much revenue as they did "Pre-K."

When I visited New Orleans during JazzFest in 2006, there was still such devastation and collective mourning for a city that's now lost in time. The New Orleans of today is a reinvention, inhabited by a different mix of people who have more money to spend. While my "museum quality Creole" boyfriend David senses a certain ennui there, when he talks with his New Orleans friends and family, I was so taken by the stories of optimism and true grit as I collected interviews for my story. 

To read my verbal snapshot of the city, click on these two links:

Download mw_0208_new_orleans_feature.pdf

Download mw_0208_new_orleans_sidebar.pdf

Global Leapfrogging

I met these cuties earlier this year on a vacation in Thailand. They are refugees from Burma, living in a tribal village outside Chiang Mai.

They illustrate one aspect of Thailand -- people focused on living traditional lives -- that is counterbalanced in my mind with the extremely advanced forms of out-of-home media that I witnessed in Bangkok riding the Skytrain public transport system. Kids singing to videos playing on monitors in the train cars; huge video billboards that gave a kind of high-tech drive-in movie experience as I waited on the platform. In some ways, Thailand is leapfrogging the U.S.'s established technology infrastructure. And the country is hardly alone.

That's very much at the heart of two feature stories that I wrote for MediaWeek, which just published today.

I spoke with a lot of my contacts in the international realm, and met many new ones, in the process of reporting the stories. One is focused on the fastest growing markets in the world -- Brazil, Russia, India and China -- examining the dynamics and challenges specific to each country. And the other takes a look at how advertisers and their agencies are utilizing new creative strategies (or not), given the advanced forms of media that are cropping up.

Here are links to the articles:

Download mediaweek_bric_feature_110507.doc.pdf

Download mediaweek_global_ad_sidebar.doc.pdf

The Spirit of East Harlem

There are places that sear a permanent place in my mind not because of the stunning architecture or impressive natural beauty, but because the souls of the inhabitants are so vibrant it just makes me feel terrific. That's what happens when I see the color saturated buildings of La Boca, in Buenos Aires. And that's how I feel when I travel just a short bus ride away, here in New York, wrapping around Central Park to El Barrio, a.k.a. Spanish Harlem or East Harlem.

The picture above is of a painting along "Mural Row" in East Harlem. The architecture in the neighborhood is nothing to write home about. But the artistry on them is such great eye candy, and in many instances, a tribute to legandary Hispanics -- a way of bringing a sense of cultural pride to the people who live there. This mural is particularly special, because it depicts many of the "everyday" people who lived in the building decades ago.

In one of my great conspiracies of the recent past, I persuaded the magazine Segunda Juventud to let me write about El Barrio, and in the process I had an incredible amount of fun exploring the streets, galleries and restaurants there. You can view the story below.

Download segunda_s_harlem_0607.pdf