Fashion on the Carpet: Too much for you, Mr B.

Sigourney Weaver in In Style:

"That man--I can't remember his name: Blackwell? Blackstone?--he put me on his worst-dressed list after this. He didn't like it, but it was awesome. I thought, It's too much for you to understand."

Re-motto: Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Eraser

Maybe she's born with it. Maybe it's Etch-a-Sketch.

My tattoo made me do it

Will this woman smash your windows?

Will this man eat your lung??!! Gasp!

So these are the kinds of journalistic details I really dislike:

1. From a story about a prisoner who ate his cellmate's lung:

"Cocaign, 37, who has a shaved head and whose face is covered in tattoos."

2. From a story about the violent protesters at the G20 summit in Toronto:

"“Why?” shot back a young woman in dreadlocked black hair."

What does it matter if the guy has face tattoos, and this woman has dreadlocks? It is completely irrelevant to the story. All such details do is reveal the prejudices of those who write them.

Goodbye Kitty

We had to put Lord Sherringham down this morning. It's too quiet around here with only 1 cat left. Hapoo.

Don't it make you wanna dance? - Annie says we're shining lights! Weee!

"Shining Light" - Annie Lennox

A constellation once seen
Over Royal David’s city
An epiphany you burn so pretty
Yeah, you are a shining light

Fashion Practicality: Uma's Secret!

We see the fashionable ladies on the red carpet, but what dirty secrets are they hiding from us?!! (Besides hairy legs, I mean.)

Uma Thurman in In Style:

"I almost never wear heels. And if I have to wear them for the red carpet, I'll always have a pair of flats in the car to change into. My long dresses hide them."

Gasp! The little sneak!

The new raw you -- so sexy!

Lord Sherringham with my husband

So. In Personal Life Land... my older cat was diagnosed with cancer today. We've been given predizone to get him more comfy for a week or so, but we'll be putting him down quite soon. You may recall my other old cat had to be put down in October. As October-old-cat used to meow: Meh meh meh!!



But my father just sent me a video which is giving me some amoozement in this Time of Need. I won't show it to Sherry-cat, though. It might give him face-smack-with-paw: "Veggies instead of meat? Doh! Why do you only tell me noooow??"

Here are my dad's comments from when he sent the video:

I Believe!!! I Believe!!! I love how they make this soooo sexxy!!! hooo hooooo!! I actually think there's probably some good nutritional reasons to eat a raw-er diet -- but I'm in awe of how they do the HARD SELL on this!! I'm excited! Pizza Cells!!

And then my reply-comments, written as I watched: [For the record, I don't have anything against a raw diet, though I don't believe it's the most healthy way to eat. I do think eating more raw food is good, though. If only cause it's not processed.]

People are getting cancer and dying early! Like... over the age of 80? Horror.

Oh. My. Days. Who is this freaky disco guy? lol

"The most primitive people on earth" -- ??

These people are scary.

Now he's saying an apple tree is alive, but mold isn't. ... ... ...?

Your body needs living food in order to live. Soooo wild animal carnivores aren't alive? [Or can you eat raw meat as part of a raw diet?!]

AHHHH!!! This kind of stuff is soooo ridiculous. But I'm really enjoying it.

The biggest most powerful animals on the planet don't eat meat. ...Yes, except they're herbivores. We're omnivores. It's an advantage.

AHHH! THE BLONDE GUY AGAIN!!!

Thanks for entertaining me in this time of sorrow.

"That pizza becomes part of you."

No wonder comments have been disabled. Can't even imagine.

AHHH! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! THE WINGS!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!HAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA

Thanks dad.

Socks with Sandals -- The devil's work Part II

However, there is one time when socks with sandals is "allowed" and that's when you're bringing back the 80s with a high heeled sandal. I predict this particular flashback won't last long because most people will be afraid of being mocked by their Un-High-Fashion-Knowledgeable friends.




But the Fergie shoe accessory look might last longer, because it's a safe extension of the Secret Unspoken Desire to wear socks. ;-) (These are dekkori.)

Socks with Sandals -- It's the devil's work (apparently)

One of the biggest, hugest fashion no-no's on the planet (that is, in the Western world) is socks with sandals. I don't know why. I think it's one of those things that you think is ugly just because you've been conditioned to do so. I can actually remember the day my mother told me this was a horrid fashion faux-pas--pretty sure I never thought twice about it before. I don't see anything that could be inherently construed as ugly. (Like: It's a sign you're poor, so women won't mate with you! After all, you can afford both sandals and socks.)

Here's my guess as to why it's hated -- ageism. It was originally only done by older men, and what The Oldies Do must be bad.

The big question is, if you're cold enough to wear socks, why not put on shoes? Here are my guesses as to the combo...

- You want your feet to be cooler than they would be in shoes, but not totally coldy--which they can be on a summer night. You want your feet to breathe, but you still don't want your skin to be coldies.

- You have bad sandals that rub your feet.

- You don't like getting sand or pebbles in your sandals.

Here is the sock & sandal combo that my dad likes to wear, purposely to bug the anti-S&S crowd.

Don't it make you wanna dance? - 90s Edition

Ahhh the quintessential one hit wonder. (And I would know, cause I bought the album and it was rubbish!)

What interests Oriah...

I have trouble trusting someone whose name is Oriah Mountain Dreamer, but I do like her "The Invitation" poem. Here are the bits I like best: (full poem here)

It doesn’t interest me
how old you are.
I want to know
if you will risk
looking like a fool
for love
for your dream
for the adventure of being alive.

if you have been opened
by life’s betrayals
or have become shriveled and closed
from fear of further pain.

I want to know if you can
disappoint another
to be true to yourself.

I want to know if you can see Beauty
even when it is not pretty
every day.

It doesn’t interest me
where or what or with whom
you have studied.
I want to know
what sustains you
from the inside
when all else falls away.

I want to know
if you can be alone
with yourself
and if you truly like
the company you keep
in the empty moments.

By Oriah © Mountain Dreaming,
from the book The Invitation
published by HarperONE, San Francisco,
1999 All rights reserved

Your daily affirmations

[If video stops working, try here.]

A brand new you! (Or cat.)

In Style has an online makeover tool where you can try star hairstyles on yourself. I thought Haley could use a new look, so I tried a few on her.

Here she is in all her natural beauty:

A Gaga look:

A little old style Hollywood:

And of course--the Kate Gosselin:

Which do you like best?

Fat Jokes

Another fun US spread: "We're Tired of the Fat Jokes!"

"For seven years it's been happening. It's like, 'OK cool, the fat joke,'" she said earlier this year. "I don't think artists are ever the ones who have the problem with their weight, it is other people." - Kelly Clarkson

"A size 2 is not fat!" she seethed on her blog after critics mocked Web photos of her in a bikini in 2007. - Jennifer Love Hewitt

"Growing up, "everyone called me fat," she recently told Tyra Banks. "Every paper, the headline was 'fat, fat, fat.'" - Serena Williams

After being the butt of jokes, the former Jenny Craig spokesperson - who said in May she gained 83 lbs. two years after losing 75 lbs. - Twittered: "TIRED of late night hosts DEGRADING WOMEN PERIOD." - Kirstie Alley (I second that emotion.)

Don't it make you wanna dance? - Is there anybody alive out there?

Radio Nowhere - Bruce Springsteen

I want a thousand guitars
I want pounding drums
I want a million different voices speaking in tongues
This is radio nowhere, is there anybody alive out there?

Corn is the devil

I didn't know that the lovely people behind High Fructose Corn Syrup have started an ad campaign. Are you serious?? The tagline is "it's fine in moderation." Yes, I actually do believe this, though I would still aim for Moderately Low. But as many are pointing out: What moderation? It is literally in everything.

After reading Michael Pollan I decided to try going just one week without eating HFCS, just to become conscious of how many things it's in. The result was eating almost no processed foods.

But also--these ads are the height of dorkiness.

But also--it's not the same as sugar, as these ads claim. At least not for rats.





Spoof

This kid has a healthy attitude towards relationships

"I love you but I don't like you all the time!"

Fair enough. We don't like you all the time either.

Niercy's Advice: I'm trying to tell you what I know!

I was reading a list of "bedtime beauty secrets" on People magazine, and came across this one, from actor Niecy Nash.

Internets Killed the Video Star?

Some popular pop/rock women of the last couple years are Lady Gaga,

Beth Ditto (lead singer of Gossip)

and Amy Winehouse.

Beth Ditto is a large woman, and Gaga and Winehouse are regularly called ugly or mannish by Random Internets People. So... does this mean there's a growing space in Popland for Unconventionally Pretty People? Or maybe there always has been, and these are just the latest Approved Exceptions?

Mind you--since music video channels are no longer the place where people go for their new music (and indeed they barely play videos at all), maybe we're going to experience a slight shift back towards Talent Over Gorgeosity. We all watch videos on youtube and such, but there's a ton more variety in that than in the MTV playlist. And a lot of people discover music through file swapping, which is aural not visual. Going to watch a video might be what you do after you've heard the music. ?

So video killed the radio star--will the internet kill the video star? Probably not--these three women are also well known for their fashion style. But it's going to do something.

Don't it make you wanna dance? - Potty Mouth Edition

Eminem is penning inspirational songs now? Must be growing up--Kanye shouldn't be far behind. It's a well-made video. And I'm surprised that this Vevo* version isn't edited--I guess it's not in their control, but that of the record companies who submit the videos.

Fave lyrics:
But I think I'm still tryna figure this crap out
Thought I had it mapped out but I guess I didn't
This fucking black cloud's still follows me around
But it's time to exercise these demons
These motherfuckers are doing jumping jacks now!




* I try to use Vevo videos so they won't disappear with time. Sorry for the ads.

Empathy: Loving Others Too

This blog is partly about how to feel better about ourselves, so I talk about self-love a lot--as is the trend in my generation. But I also talk about how we treat other people, which is an equally important subject. Not independence, not dependence, but interdependence.

The subject of empathy seems to be gaining popularity this decade -- three examples: The Age of Empathy, Empathic Civilization (which one of my coworkers highly recommends), and Born for Love. The authors of the last book believe empathy is on the decline, which alarms me since I want to live in a society where people are kind to each other, and less judgmental.

Here are a couple passages from an article on this in Psychology Today (written by one of these authors). To read their theories of why this has happened, go here.

College students who hit campus after 2000 have empathy levels that are 40% lower than those who came before them, according to a stunning new meta-analysis presented to at the annual meeting of the Association for Psychological Science by University of Michigan researchers. It includes data from over 14,000 students.

...

The survey on empathy used in this study--which you can take for yourself here--however, is another matter. While it so obviously measures empathy that you could easily game it to make yourself look kinder and nicer, the fact that today's college students don't even feel compelled to do that suggests that the study is measuring something real. If young people don't even care about seeming uncaring, something is seriously wrong. Another survey in the research found that people also think that others around them are less compassionate.

And if you have 10 minutes, here is a GREAT cartoon video of the main idea from the Jeremy Rifkin book:

I love goooold!

The New York Times has a story on gold in face creams--apparently it's what all the cool kids are doing. However it's not what all the cool dermatologists are doing.

Dr. Judith Hellman, a dermatologist in New York City, did research into gold face creams after enough magazine beauty editors pestered her about them. “At best, they do nothing, and at worst, they can give you irritation of the skin,” she said. “I would tell people to put that money into gold that they can wear around their neck or on their fingers.”

Is there no end to how stupid we're willing to let the cosmetics companies make us look?

Weight: Putting It All Out There

I read the blog of author Jennifer Crusie, and sometimes hop over to the blog of her roommate and author Lani Diane Rich. She seems to often talk about beauty, weight and such. On May 18th she posted a Quite Brave posting about the "crazy" thoughts she has about herself. Here are a few:

I think about my size probably twenty times a day. That’s almost twice every waking hour. Honestly, it might be more than that; I’ve never tracked it.

I very rarely think about the fact that I’ve published books, given birth, produced a free podcast to encourage new writers, and taught beginning television students the meaning of narrative. When I do think about these things, my internal response is, “Yeah, well…”

When I think about being fat, my internal response is deep, horrifying shame.

When I lost 20 pounds on Atkins, my sense of my own value went up dramatically. Then I gained the weight back.