Art and Television

First off, let me say WHEW! It has been a while since I have written anything. It is not that I have been busy, I just could not come up with something to blog about.

Today, I gathered my inspiration from what I am currently watching. As of this very minute, I am watching Work Of Art on Bravo. This is a brand new show that started about three weeks ago and kind of follows the order of Project Runway. People create pieces of art after being given a task, and then they are judged on creativity, technique, etc. Like Project Runway, people tend not to understand what the point of the art is on Work of Art. So many people watch Project Runway (or any fashion show for that matter) and wonder who actually wears the clothes that are being shown. This is a little bit annoying that people get annoyed with not understanding why someone would make something like this

(Armani Runway 2010)

People who do not understand art do not understand that this is wearable art. Of course no one would have a reason to wear these beautiful dresses, but you also would not take a Picasso, fold it up into a square, and carry it around in your wallet. I love clothes and I love fashion shows and seeing what everyone is making for he next season. So it really bugs me when people make comments about not being able to wear clothes that designers make. I have a different reason as to why I cannot wear their clothes; I am 5'1 and I will keep my waist size to myself.

I didn't have as much to say about art as I had intended, but that is okay. I can always make another blog dedicated to it later.

On to the next topic.

Has anyone seen any themes in television lately? I have noticed that channels have common themes among themselves. Take for example TLC. They focus mostly on huge families (Kate Plus 8, 19 Kids and Counting, Table For 12), little people (The Little Couple, Little People Big World), and obesity (One BIG Happy Family, Half-Ton Man). Bravo does the same with the Real Housewives Of...

Lets talk about the Real Housewives of New Jersey for a minute. Poor Bryan has to watch this show with me because I am absolutely in love with it. The premise of the show is that these 5 (now 4) women are really rich and live in New Jersey where they do rich things. Like me, you are probably thinking "I didn't know that anyone rich besides Bruce Springsteen and Bon Jovi lived in NJ". Well they do. And they are not all in the mob. Anyway, I was watching last night and one of the story plots was that Teresa was throwing a house warming party after living in this house for over a year. I think I heard that her house is estimated to be worth around $7 million dollars. Anyway, we were able to see the party planning happen and how everything came together. They were showing the rented furniture (I don't understand why you wouldn't show off your new furniture at this party) and I noticed that a lot of the fabric on the rented furniture was gold and animal print. I thought to myself "That is really cute, but I could not pull that off here." Every week that I watch this show, I keep thinking about how great it would be to be able to wear animal print and a lot of gold, and people would not think you are crazy. People in Kansas wear beige (you know who you are) and denim. I am not a beige and denim fan. I decided that to fulfill my dream, I need to move to Jersey for a week and see how much gold and animal print I can wear in one week. I do need to point out that I did think it was a little ridiculous that Teresa put leopard print clothes on her new born baby before she was even out of the hospital. I might have an inner Jersey girl, but even I know that is a little much.

If you know me at all, you would know that I like watching Gilmore Girls re-runs. For a minute there I thought I was exactly like Rory Gilmore because we were going through the same things and she wanted to be a journalist as well. I guess that just means that they had good writers. While watching this show in the afternoons on ABC Family, they have commercials for their other shows. One that seems to be very popular is The Secret Life Of The American Teenager. I will admit that when this show first came out, I did watch it. The creator is the same woman who came up with 7th Heaven which was a clean, family appropriate show. I grew up with 7th Heaven and wanted to see what this new show was all about. If you have seen any of the previews, you would know that it is about a girl who gets pregnant her sophomore year of high school. My first thought was "Well, that seems realistic." The more I watched, the more I realized that, sure, it covers all the different groups that pop up in high school, but some of these story lines are completely unrealistic.

When the first show was over, I looked at the message boards for this show. I can gather from the comments and screen names that most of the people writing on the message boards were from girls 12-17. Some of them would talk about the show and how much they like it, who they like, and what their parents thought because a lot of parents watched it with them. Then there were the messages stating that the girl commenting was pregnant or was thinking about sleeping with their boyfriend/girlfriend. This got me to thinking about the message that is being sent by this show. Is it good or bad? Do more people relate to this show and want to start sleeping with their partner or do they understand what the show is saying and is actually taking the message to heart? To me, the message is, okay, this is sex, and this is what can happen. Make the best decision for you.

I wondered if the people on the message boards were watching the show and making better decisions or if they were making fun of being a teenager and being pregnant. Some of the people on the boards would say "I think I am pregnant" and give little symptoms of pregnancy, but then they would make up some story for all the world to hear and people would start debunking their pregnancy. That is why I wondered if they were taking the message to heart or just using it to not take the message seriously. Personally, I think this is a great show for t(w)eens to watch with their parents so they can get some kind of dialog going. The story lines might be a little rough at times, but for the most part, it stays true to its form.

I also think that Teen Mom on MTV is a good show for t(w)eens to watch so they can see how hard it can be to be 16 with a child. SLOAT is good to show different options, but Teen Mom is great at showing what happens after you have a baby.

Sorry this blog is everywhere tonight. I am distracted because they are making artsy book covers and you know how much I love how to read.

Until next time...

If You're Going To Take A Picture For Everyone To See, Make Sure You Look At It First...And I Mean Really Look At It.

I had to yawn while writing that title because it was so long. Hopefully you are awake enough to continue reading this.

About three seconds ago, I was looking at the update statues' that appeared on my Facebook homepage and realized that someone had taken a picture of themselves to show their new hair-do. I clicked on the picture because I wanted to see what they had done to their hair. After saying "Oh, there's the difference", I realized that maybe this was not just a click and shoot picture. They had put some thought into how they were going to take the picture before just snapping away. In the picture, they had made this look that said "Is this okay?" by raising their eyebrows and biting one corner of their lower lip.

While I can see where this picture was going, I noticed something that maybe no one else has (or maybe they did not have the guts to say it). While the biting of the lower lip was a nice touch to making an artsy picture, the lip nibble actually made it look like she was chewing tobacco. After making this known to myself, that is all I could think about now. It went to being an artsy picture to being a picture that featured a disgusting habit. I could not get this image out of my head and now the picture was ruined.

This, however, was the the first time that I have seen pictures that have been completely ruined because the photographer did not take the time to look over their picture.

One of the worst pictures I have seen was a Facebook picture of a girl that I do not know. Honestly, I cannot remember where I saw the picture, but it was probably one of the groups on Facebook that is dedicated to bad profile pictures. Anyway, there was one picture in particular that really stood out. The girl was taking a picture of herself in her bathroom. It was one of those pictures that I like to refer to as "emo picture" because she took the picture from above her head while she looked up while the camera was facing down. You could see all of her body and she was wearing a swimsuit which can only mean that she was trying to get someone's attention. Well, she would be doing that, but for all of the wrong reasons. Here is why. Like I mentioned before, she took the picture in her bathroom. Well everyone knows that there is usually a bathtub, sink and toilet in a bathroom. In the background of this picture, there was not a bathtub or a sink, but the toilet. Most people would not think twice about the toilet being in the background, but this girl should have because someone had obviously gone to the bathroom beforehand and had not flushed the toilet. Lets just say that there was more than liquid in there. So now someone is definitely looking at the picture, but not because she is not leaving much to the imagination (either with her body or what she does while in the bathroom).

Obviously I spend a lot of time on Facebook and look at people's profile pictures. Once again, I was looking at someone's past profile pictures and realized something: They are all the same. Girls like to do this pose where they make "bedroom eyes" or make it seem like you are laying down next to them. The girl had all of her profile pictures set up like this. I have never seen a guy do a picture where he wanted to make an image that made it seem like you were in bed with him. I think girls do this because they want to make guys want them or want to sleep with them. Either way, it would probably seem boring to a guy if all of your pictures were like that. They might think "Is she constantly laying down?" or something along those lines. Also, these girls are never smiling in those types of pictures. That is something else I do not understand. If you finally found a companion, wouldn't you be happy? I admit that once I had a picture like that, but not for long because I realized how weird it looked. Also, it seemed unrealistic that my make-up would be as good in the morning as it was in that picture after laying down. Usually I have raccoon eyes and a red splotch on one side of my cheek from laying on either side of my face. This discretion also goes for girls that make kissy faces in all of their pictures. It pictures suddenly go from "nice lips" to "Are you sure you're not a duck?"

In conclusion, if you are going to take a picture in the bathroom, check the toilet first. And if you are going to use your profile picture as a way of picking up a soul mate, show them your other hobbies besides frowning, laying down, and kissing. Also, remember to only post pictures that your mother could be proud of because if she is anything like my mom, she will finally catch up with technology and want to be your "friend" on the Internet.

Until next time...

Getting To Know You...er...I Mean Me.

The title of this blog sounds very conceded, but what is a blog for if not for the author to talk about themselves? As much as I want to get to know you, I will need to go on YOUR blog to really do that. I spent a good ten minutes trying to figure out how to put in a background and choosing the text, so please do not try to make this blog your blog.

With that said and done, I would like to move on and explain what exactly I am trying to accomplish here. The point of this blog is to express my opinions about culture, celebrity, news and daily life. I also would like to point out that I think this blog is appropriately titled "I Know You Didn't Ask But..." because it means just that. You did not ask to hear my opinion, but I am airing it anyway. Take it or leave it; it is out there.

That last paragraph was very blunt, but on a recent trip to my parent's home, my father and I agreed that maybe I have become more cynical. I told him that maybe I was not so much cynical as I was opinionated. Plus, a lot of things bug me. However, before we get into the things I dislike, maybe I should tell you about things I do like:

1) SHOES!!!- If I won the lottery, I would buy shoes and then do everything else like travel and build a home. There is good logic behind this way of doing things because I need to know how big of a house to build to fit all of my shoes.

2) Books- Did you notice the background of this page? Yeah, it is a stack of books. I enjoy reading Fiction the most, but sometimes I like reading Biographies or "How To.." books. It is always a good idea to get a book about the area of your next vacation so you can plan a really great trip, so I enjoy reading those as well.

3) Cooking- I love cooking. Plain and simple. I like trying new recipes and when I go out, I like to try new foods. For instance, my husband and I went out this past April for his birthday at this amazing little place here in Manhattan, KS called Four Olives. I tried the Lobster Ravioli with Crab Meat sauce and it was probably the best meal I have ever had.

4) Husband, Family and Friends- They support me in everything I do. I hope I do not embarrass them with this blog.

So those are just a few things I enjoy. I do enjoy more in life, but you only have so much time in your day to read this blog, so I will leave it at my top 4.

Lets move on.

So this first blog is about something that happened to me just yesterday. I went up north of Manhattan for a job interview since Bryan and I will be moving very soon. The interview went very very well and hopefully I will be hearing tomorrow if I got the job or not. So on the way home I was thinking about all the possibilities that could arise from me getting this job. Bryan and I had already decided that if one of us were to get a job before the other, that person would go ahead and move until our lease was up at our current apartment, and then the other would follow. So I was thinking to myself (all the while thinking about how to get home without using the GPS!) that maybe now would be a good time to pick up the task of finding a place to live.

If I have never met you before, or you did not know, finding a place to rent gives me severe anxiety. Just five minutes into looking at places, my stomach started to hurt, as well as my head and dizziness settled in. It is so frustrating to put in the search engine of a renters site that you want a two bedroom townhouse for such and such a price, and when you hit "Search", it brings up apartment listings. Why even put up a tab that says "Houses/Condos/Townhomes" if that is what I asked for, but that is not what you are showing me? I even checked the box that said Condos and the box that said Townhomes as well. Was that not specific enough for you?

Not only did I have a problem with the fact that they were not giving me the information I requested, but the pictures they put on the site are absolutely HORRENDOUS! We are looking for a bigger apartment then we currently have, so square footage is something that I take into consideration. When they say that an apartment (because apparently when you say Townhome what you really mean is apartment) is 900 square feet, I want to see what all can fit into 900 square feet. One way to do that is to look at the pictures. A lot of places that are trying to lease apartments have pictures of model homes so you can kind of get an idea of what all can fit into that room. We have walked through quite a few and I have looked at a lot online, and they all seem to have one thing in common: tacky decorating.

The model apartments we have walked through all seem to have the theme that a giant must live there. Usually they have an over-sized love seat and couch that is sitting diagonally in the room facing a fireplace. Why would you put so many big things in one room to make it look spacious? I don't think that anyone who lives in an apartment is going to go out and buy over-sized furniture to make their house feel more cozy. Currently, we have a couch that could fit four and two rocking chairs and a small entertainment center plus a coffee table in the middle of the room that you can walk around without grazing your leg on any other furniture. Why trade six living room items for two large chairs so you can look at a fireplace? Also, usually the model homes will have some kind of cabinet entertainment center in them to show you that you have room for a large cabinet. First off, that makes it feel like a hotel room, and second, you would not be able to open the cabinet because of the giant furniture. There was one picture in particular that really made me queezy. Not only did they have a large cabinet to put your television in, but next to the cabinet, they had an adobe looking ladder leaning up against the wall for decoration. Who does that in an apartment or any place that is not a ranch? Clearly you cannot use that ladder for home repair purposes, so why not free up the space and make the room look a little larger by getting rid of the unnecessary ladder? Then the home decoration that made me want to scream was all of the fake plants they put everywhere. They had fake plants coming over the ledge of the mantel piece (with huge blue metal stars leaning up against the wall behind the plants) and some in the corners of the rooms. Unless the giant, who I am not sure lives in the apartment now, grew up in the forest, those plants are very impractical when trying to show how roomy an apartment can be.

Leasing places spend so much time focusing on the living rooms that they forget about the rest of the house. This same apartment had folding tables and chairs for the kitchen table with a fishbowl and bamboo as the centerpiece. Then in the bedroom, they had a bed coming out of the corner into the middle of the room (I don't understand that either) with what can only be called a hotel bed comforter thrown on the bed. Maybe they should put the distracting ladder in the living room into the bed room so you don't focus on how ugly the bedspread is. Splurge of a nice comforter so I don't feel like I am looking at renting a hotel bedroom.

Finally, in the kitchens of most of these properties, they have not had an update since avocado refrigerators were in style. I know that they are coming back, but do you really want an ugly fridge, exposed brick walls and wood paneled cabinets as your kitchen decorations? I would be so confused if I lived in this apartment. It would feel like I was on vacation with the Brady Bunch. Like maybe they moved their kitchen to their ranch style hotel room. It's just too weird.

Bryan has now taken on the responsibility of finding us a place to live. After this fiasco, I went to bed at 10:00 until he came home at 10:20 because I was so exhausted. I am almost tempted to let him just pick it out without any of my help because he knows what I want and I trust that he can find something that fits us.

So that is my first grumble for this blog. Look for more on a semi, maybe not so regular, basis. I also enjoy feedback.

Until next time...