Karmacake

Tuesday, October 6th 2009

 

Let’s face it: there are tons of websites that inundate us with information these days – many of which cover the phenomenon of “pop culture” and what’s happening in the world today. It can be overwhelming to decide on where to devote your attention. But alas, your hunt is over! There is a FABULOUS new website launching called, “Karmacake” this week (October 8th, 2009) – which, I can promise you will give you all of the information you’re looking for and much more. We’ve been anticipating this launch so much, we decided to sit down with one of the creators and our friend – Marie Nicola and have her spill on her latest project.

1)    Personal Power Image: “You must be so excited about the launch of Karmacake! Tell me, why now? Where did this idea stem from?”  

 Marie: “Karmacake was originally my blog. I started it in 2004 and it began as a creative outlet to voice my frustrations and excitement of my life in general. At the time I was trying to make it as an opera singer, model, actress in the big city. I strived to put forward intelligent content with a conversational tone - like you were chatting with your best friend. It allowed me to be open and engage conversation on hot topics that I was always told were verboten. But I never listen... I'm indignant towards rules that stifle me creatively. LOL!!! No joke. Ask any English teacher I had from grade 7 onwards. I was a junior sized bitch with a big city mouth. I also secretly would make up my own fake magazines with my friends Chantal Wadman and Anne-Marie Brunet in Junior High. I would love it if she still had them!! They were a riot. I would cut up pictures from People Magazine and then type around it with an old typewriter I put in my room. I can't remember what I wrote, but I know one of them had to do with Pee-Wee Herman's sexy time in the adult theatre... what would a 12 year old have to say about that? Apparently a lot, it was a 3 pager!! Hahaha! Anyway, from the writing on my blog I began to get hired as a writer because people were into my style of writing. I started writing about fashion, life, products, interviewing and then I landed a gig as the editor of Dine.TO. With each new job I had less time to blog. Then a few years ago, my now fiancé Matt Read, really encouraged me to revisit Karmacake since so many good things came from it. So we sat down together with our friend (and superstar designer) Justin Godard and began work on Karmacake 2.0.”

 “We did it now because the timing was right. I'm ready to do my own thing, Matt is ready to show the world he's an all star programmer and Justin is just pure talent. On a whole, I think people are ready for a publication that is smart and witty. We have no objective except for getting people to have a different perspective on mainstream culture and the world around us. Why not? We talk about it enough - barstool prophets and such. Let's get that soapbox and start talking!”

 

2)    Personal Power Image: “Who was the website created for? Who will the readership be?” 

 Marie:  “The website was created for me. I know that sounds selfish, but it's true. My number one philosophy when working on Karmacake is to create something that I like. So this will be the best web publication that I can possible put together. It's content I'm interested in reading, a look I find attractive - it's all for me. Because, at the end of the day, whether or not people love it or hate it, I need to be happy with it. If folks hate it, well at least I loved it...and matt...and Justin...and my mom. Haha. My mom's cute like that. But, you know what I'm saying, if I worked to make other people happy then I'm doomed to fail.” 

 

3)    Personal Power Image: “The internet is booming with hundreds of different website on celebrities, pop culture and media – what makes Karmacake the number one place to go?”  

 Marie:  “Because, Karmacake isn't interested in demonizing celebrities, or glamorizing their lives. Pop Culture is something more than celebrities and media. There's a machine that runs that world - the marketers, the products and the people who buy into it. Our perception of what constitutes pop culture is so narrow, and for the most part the most entertaining outlets are the gossip rags that love to hate. I want to bring in focus content that is thought provoking and interesting. I recognize the influence of politics and economics as having a profound effect on our mainstream media. There's more to the world than what we're seeing. So again what makes Karmacake different? Well for one, this is filling a niche that is uniquely me. I've searched for years to try and find a publication that treated mainstream culture with the same level of tact and sincerity as news and I always came up at a loss. People always were quick to suggest things, but I still came up feeling like those publications were missing something... maybe it was me writing for them. That's the other thing that makes Karmacake awesome, it's by me and I'm awesome - By birth not by association.” 

 

4)    Personal Power Image: “Where did the name “Karmacake” come from? What does it mean?”  

 Marie: “Karmacake...oooh ho ho ho. This is a long story. Karmacake is a term I made up years ago - years before the blog came about. My mother was about to board a flight from Cyprus with my father and for some reason my sainted mother was held back. It was all very curious and we can only assume it was a random security check for some reason. Well my mother is a blessed British woman with the patience of a priest and the disposition of an angel. And, when all was said and done, she was released, the security folks apologized and she and by father were rebooked on a new flight. When making her way to her seat, my mother picked up what looked like a piece of garbage from the walkway - a crumpled piece of paper. When she was seated she opened it up and there written was a recipe for a pudding cake - in English. Now, before my parents trip, my mother and I had an obsession with pudding cake. You have to admit, the idea of a self-saucing cake is pretty awesome. Brownie on top, yummy fudge sauce on the bottom - I mean, that's a rad combo for the effort of mixing up batter for a single cake. Well, unfortunately, my mother and I never were able to make one successfully. We had all but given up until my mother had found that recipe on the flight from Cyprus. We made it. It was awesome. I called it Karmacake. Because I figured that the “Powers That Be”, had decreed suitable reparations for my darling mother who had endured so much. The karmic lines were crossed that day but we accepted the apology. It made its own sauce - I mean, how can you stay upset when you have some of that over a scoop of vanilla ice cream? You really can't.” 

5)    Personal Power Image: “Why the focus on Pop culture?”  

 Marie: “Because I feel it's such a misunderstood facet of our society. Popular culture is often believed to be lesser and somehow low brow because it is favoured by the general public. It is pigeon holed as superficial and consumerist, but I think there is more to it than that. Instead of stepping back and assuming that ideas, attitudes and phenomena favoured by the mainstream are somehow only sensationalized by mass media, I want to validate it. There's a reason why we're down with the drams on “The Hills” or why we pick up fashion magazines to feel like we're in style. Pop Culture is relevant to each one of us, it connects us and on some level or another we can relate to it. But, there's more to it than just music, movies and tv. There's news, "life hacks" and technology. And, there's not just fashion there's design. There's an opportunity here to look at global pop culture from a higher view. It's a little arrogant for us to think that the only cool pop culture is North American pop culture – do you know how many people I know that are closet Bollywood fans? So let's take back pop culture. Let's embrace it as something that's smart. I'm going to have a website that won't make you embarrassed if someone catches you reading it.” 

 

6)    Personal Power Image: “Will this site focus on Toronto and the surrounding area? Or worldwide?”

Marie:  “It's Toronto-based by virtue of Matt, Justin and I's own geographic location. However, the greatest benefit about being in Toronto is the blatant and rampant multiculturalism - I mean every mega city is multicultural, but Torontonians embrace it. We thrive on it. It's a badge of honour to us to be as diverse as we possibly can. So here I have access to so much culture - local and global. But, it's not Toronto-centric. I am really trying to work hard to create content that knows no borders.” 

 

7)    Personal Power Image: “Congratulations on the mention in ETalk – that’s so exciting! Did you expect this type of anticipation for your launch?” 

 Marie: “No, not really. I'm a little overwhelmed by it and a little scared, to be honest. I mean, we've started to get attention even before we've had a product to launch. So the stakes are a little higher now. The ETalk daily came about through Monica Healy, a young woman who has a goal to raise a million dollars for Sick Kids. Her charity is called, Teens 4 a Cause and during this year's Toronto International Film Festival she was going around and interviewing young movers and shakers. From the pool, ETalk will select a few to air. I have no idea if I'm going to be in that pool, regardless, meeting Monica was an amazing experience and I'm so happy that at the age of 15 she is already a community leader.”

 

8)    Personal Power Image: “What is your favourite aspect about embarking on this new project?”

 Marie:  “The adrenalin. I'm scared, thrilled, encouraged, motivated and blessed every step of the way. Seeing the high level that Matt can program at and the involvement of my writers, I'm overwhelmingly happy. But, I tell you, I will be happy to launch. The wait is killing me.”  

 

9)    Personal Power Image: “Is there any other news you’d like to share about Karmacake?”

 Marie:  “Well not really... Karmacake is a bit of a mixed bag. For the first three months we're going to be doing a lot of testing, trying things out and really trying to nail down our style. We can do that with the web. It's kind of awesome like that. So I really want to ask people to stick with us and feel free to offer suggestions as we go along. I'm happy to talk about Karmacake...it's fun to me! But, I'm still looking for writers internationally, so I invite folks to email me at info@karmacake.ca

 

And there you have it.

I highly recommend that you all visit Karmacake before the launch - http://www.karmacake.ca and sign up for their newsletters. As Marie and her team are saying – it will be “a glorious inbox revolution”.

Warmest wishes,

 

Christie Ressel, International Image Consultant

Personal Power Image Consulting

1 Comments

Shawn

Great review - I'm looking forward to the launch!

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