Does This Recession Make Me Look Fat?

Reports are cropping up of a certain growing schlumpiness among the American public since the recession hit. Some commenting on the trend are women relieved at the emerging fashion laxity, and others are horrified.

Boston.com reported the phenomenon from the perspective of two Prudential Center sales associates, under-occupied of late. According to these girls, the Bostonians they see walking "have no style." "It is blah," they insightfully added.

Ignoring for a moment the fact that Bostonians have always looked terrible, there's something here worth considering. A real estate exec quoted in the Boston.com article said she was relieved to escape excessive workplace fashion expectations and another said she's feels free of the pressure to dye her gray hair because "people are more forgiving now."

This trend is on line with some other encouraging effects of the recession revolving around the curbing of excessive consumption and the unexamined exaltation of superficial treasures. Not to mention an exciting and necessary shift toward fresh and different ideas, in every area from fashion to energy solutions and financial investments. All signs point to a growing willingness to get real and get creative. So maybe this savings-driven schlumpification will mark a nationwide cleanse of appearance obsession.

Bring on the dark roots and stray eyebrow hairs!

Phish's Recession Comeback

90s jam band Phish is pulling a Jay-Z, with a little less glam and a dose of social consciousness.

In 2004, Phish played "one last summer tour," ending with a marathon weekend festival in Vermont seen by 65,000 tripping, greasy fans who thought they were witnessing the end of an era, man.

Sorry, stoners. Phish is back in a serious way, and they are looking to alleviate the recession blues. Frontman Tre Anastasio says, "It's like a service commitment." How is that, you wonder? Well, Tre figures that the "long shows of pure physical pleasure" that the band is famous for are a perfect antidote to the daily bummer that is unemployment and poverty. As he said in this New York Times article, "They come to dance and forget their troubles."

Well I for one am all for dancing away our troubles, and do think that live music is one of the best mood boosters that exists, but for tickets being resold for upwards of $1,000, this Recessionista will not be making it to the show.

Luckily, Phish plans to post recordings of all three Hampton Coliseum shows (in Va, the starting point for their tour) as high-quality MP3 files for free downloading at livephish.com. Now that is music to a Recessionista's ears.

A Park Slope Sign Of The Times

Bougie/bitchy Park Slope shop The Cabinet must be feeling the Recession stranglehold to have taken down this sign that they thought was oh-so-clever back in November.

Perhaps they feel they can no longer afford to alienate the sensitive mommies and daddies who just may need to call the nanny to have her take the nursery dimensions while they shop!

Celebrate the Recession! A "Modern Day Depression-Era" Fundraiser

The City Reliquary is a small and funky Williamsburg museum with a community conscience. Tonight they are hosting a fundraising event called "Brother Can You Spare Some Rent?" which will feature a fortune teller, a "Pie the Landlord" booth, Depression-era movies, beer and old-timey drinks and DIY fingerless gloves (for when the heat does off in your apartment and you need to keep warm while applying to job after job online). All this quirky entertainment is under $5 and goes to a good cause.

Here's the info:

Friday February 27th 7-11pm
The City Reliquary Museum,
messages@cityreliquary.org
www.cityreliquary.org,
718. R.U.CIVIC (718.782.4842)
Getting there:
Ride Yer Bike! or
L train to Lorimer St.; G train to Metropolitan Ave.; J, M, Z train to Marcy Ave.

'Til Debt Do Us Part

In case you weren't depressed enough about being unemployed, poor, and lacking in career prospects this recession, don't worry: soon your relationship will fail too.

It shouldn't come as too big of a surprise that unemployment, foreclosures, and the realization that middle age will be spent caring for aging parents abandoned by social security aren’t exactly conducive to romance and love-making.

Just before valentine's day, American Public Media's Marketplace interviewed someone from the National Foundation for Credit Counseling who confirmed that through the years, the court documents have shown that financial distress is one of the major causes of divorce. In Forbes magazine, University of Chicago Business School economist Gary Becker agreed that, "recession has always been a factor raising divorce rates."

This TIME magazine article explains a few different theories for the link between recession and divorce. And as this article tells it, many women are bailing because their moneybags husbands aren't worth so much any more (by now many of you have heard about these girls, who were ready to call it quits as soon as their banker boyfriends got laid off). But it turns out, the breadwinners are just as likely to initiate the divorce, since they have less to lose now on alimony. One divorce lawyer quoted in the article said "I've had several clients come to me recently and say, 'I've wanted to get divorced for years but didn't want to give up half of my business. Now that my business is not worth anything, wouldn't it be a good time to do it?'"

For richer and what now?

Ebay + Recession = Zilok

A new website takes a page from the ebay/craigslist book to create a forum for peer-to-peer renting. Offering everything from electronics to party supplies to heavy duty maintenance tools, Zilok.com fills that niche in the market for the items that so many people want or need for just a few uses. Use it to get some rent a plasma screen for your next superbowl party ($250/day for a 42 inch in manhattan) or fancy camera accessories for between $3 and $40/day (a fisheye lens goes for $6/day in manhattan.)

The best part of this website is that takes the monopoly power out of the hands of companies like U-haul, which have traditionally been the only place to find a van rental for a day or two (believe me, I moved this summer and looked everywhere.) On Zilok I found moving vans available in California for $85/ day whereas my U-haul experience broke the $300 mark.

But that brings us to the downside: based on the availability of items on the site, it looks like Zilok started on the west coast and is only gradually making it over to the east. All the more reason to start using it now. Offer up for rental those items that cost you more than you should have spent, and in a few uses they'll have paid for themselves! That's what I call shopping for the recession.