Mo' Mobertz!

Lauren Mobertz. Storyteller. Urban nomad. I spend my evenings running in strange places and attempting to dance salsa. Current location: NYC

[genlimbo]

Mele de la Yglesia - Generation Limbo

Spanish artist Mele de la Yglesia is beautifying Berlin one wall at a time. After years of internships and networking, Mele is starting to see recognition.

Do art schools need to teach business, too? Berlin-based artist Mele de la Yglesia argues yes:

“In the university there is not even one subject that teaches you how to live from your art or how to sell yourself.”

[genlimbo]

I Quit My Job — Here’s Why

Some of you may be wondering why suddenly all my Facebook pictures are coming from Europe. Here’s the story: I’ve quit out of marketing in order to pursue a passion project.

It’s believed that our creativity peaks during time between jobs.

I’ve been working in marketing since before graduating college (it’s been almost five years!). It was my easy way out, a way to get paid to write when I couldn’t find a position in workforce development (my true interest) from the start. But year after year, I went no where in my career, all the while knowing I was depriving myself of the chance to pursue my goals. I’m not getting any younger, so if not now, when exactly will I try to do what I really want to do?

While working and traveling as a freelance marketer over the years, I’ve watched others my age follow career paths as confused and perhaps as unguided as mine: some endure series of unpaid internships in an attempt to get their foot in the door; others turn to high-paying jobs so they can repay loans and joint “adulthood.”

In the U.S. and other places around the world, youth today are worse off career-wise than we were decades ago. Youth employment levels are at record lows, and wages are stagnant at best for those with college degrees. Yet we work longer hours than our predecessors and, with our cell phones always at hand, we never escape the office or the boss.

I don’t know how work will evolve for us over time. But something big is happening here, and I aim to document it. Will I find interesting stories? Will anyone care? Will I make a living doing this? I have no clue. But I’ll never know until I try.

Follow my work over the next seven weeks at the channels below. And if you have any comments or suggestions, or want to commission me for a project involving Millennials, feel free to contact me by commenting or by writinglauren [at] generationlimbo.com!

GenerationLimbo.com Instagram Tumblr Facebook

[genlimbo]

…For anyone who thinks this unpaid intern stuff is someone else’s problem, please think again. This is all about the dignity of being paid for one’s labor, and the resolution of these lawsuits will help to determine if the door has been opened or closed to more and more unpaid work.

David Yamada, Minding the Workplace (via genlimbo)

[momobertz]

He tells me America has been ruined by Americans and I don’t disagree. He tells me girls’ skirts have become too short and it’s not decent, and I do disagree. He tells me he took everything he owned in Delaware, put it in the front yard, and walked away. He says the planet is doomed, there is no God, and I tell him that’s just what I’ve been saying.

http://www.vice.com/read/look-at-me-the-seeds-of-a-new-project-328

[momobertz]

Comfort and convenience are nice, but where was the no-snitches criminal-minded pact of the back of the bus? Where was the lonely, desperate need to bare our failures, humiliations, and disappointments to connect with others? Where were the teenage runaways, the secret drinkers, the drug mules, the trying-to-be-good pedophiles, the undocumented migrants, the aspiring prostitutes? All the giants, the mythical, larger-than-life American characters have gone extinct. They are silent now, like the dead, revealing nothing: Why get to know strangers when you can talk to people you already know on a device? Why ever have moving experiences in real life that can’t be recorded on the cloud network? I hated the new, perfect, Wi-Fi-enabled bus and the constantly-connected-but-always-alone soul-deadening future it represented.

Riding the Dirty Dog | VICE United States

[momobertz]

Adulthood sets upon you insidiously. Doors close, certain adventures grow stale, the body decays, and serious responsibilities to friends, family, health, and work begin to loom large. The cost-benefit analysis of cheating the system no longer adds up. You get a job that pays a little money and you would rather just pay full price than deal with the stress or hassle. Your appetite for risky behavior diminishes commensurate with the embarrassment it has the potential to cause. Like all good citizens, you eventually understand that it’s just cheaper to put quarters in the parking meter than pay for the mess of parking tickets that will eventually, inevitably, catch up with you. All noncompliant subjects are eventually beaten into submission.

Riding the Dirty Dog | VICE United States

[momobertz]

On Greyhound, you are not a passenger, you are an inmate in a prison transfer—you might be an adult, you might even be going gray, but to them you are still a kid in detention, a kid being frisked by a police officer and asked, 'Do you have any needles that are going to poke me?'

Riding the Dirty Dog | VICE United States

[momobertz]

This is cool: Using Facebook to uncover pretty accurate and interesting migration trends.

[momobertz]

I have been a fan of Beyoncé’s ever since I saw a picture of her. Her music is normally very catchy and makes me dance in new ways I didn’t know I could. There was no dancing this time. Because of her success and fame, it seems unlikely that she could put so much work into something and have it not be very good. That’s how I knew my opinion must be wrong.

Ted Wilson Reviews The World #212 - The Rumpus.net

Ahh. Gotta love Ted Wilson.

[momobertz]

In my house, being able to slide the cranberry sauce out of the can, whole, attracts admiration (via Why Canned Cranberry Is — And Always Will Be — Better Than Fresh |Foodbeast)

[momobertz]

For those in branding, advertising, and communications strategy: here is a great prez on comms planning complemented by an interesting case study from Puma

[momobertz]

However, computer leisure still comprises a mere 13 minutes of the five hours of leisure time the average American has in the day.

What People Miss Out on When They’re Online 

Well, I must be doing something wrong...

[momobertz]

Sounds intense.

[momobertz]

Accepting you have a choice in everything that you do is accepting responsibility for everything you do and people don’t like this. Believing that they have no choice is the reason many people settle for what they have and don’t fight for more.

NomadSpirit | Setting up a Life You Don't Need to Escape 

Right on.

[momobertz]

So many of the stories I read in

middle school and high school stay with to this day. Sadly, nothing I read anymore has the same effect. It's as if I've grown used to everything.

[momobertz]

I miss the days when my friends would lock me in their dorm rooms for Bollywood marathons.

[momobertz]

You can do everything right, follow all your dreams, take every chance, live a life purposefully free of regret. Aware even of your own self looking back on the years critically musing: Only if. You do everything in your power to avoid regret and then, one day you turn around and your face cracks open and falls apart like an egg in the path of a flood.

Stephen Elliott, The Daily Rumpus