America’s Next Top Model got batsh*t crazy last night, when the girls practiced runway walking while wearing straightjackets. Seriously.

Miss Jay explained that often in couture shows, you have to walk in constricting costumes. Which is a fine explanation and all if more than a handful of past ANTM contestants have ever walked on a runway after the show.

The green van takes the girls back to the house, where Bianca calls Saleisha “borderline plus-size,” which, you know, makes me the poster child for morbid obesity.

Bianca goes on to say that she’ll “bring bitches down,” and will stoop to cutting up clothes, but don’t let the red hair fool you! She’s a real model and she can be couture!

Uh, what? Someone needs anger management classes a bit more than runway training, methinks.

A couture runway show is up next, and I’m officially in love with Victoria. She has the most interesting face in the competition other than Janet. Saleisha wins the challenge and Bianca sneers and bitches and makes me loathe her more.

The bondage theme of the episode continues with a photo shoot involving ropes and couture. You know, just another day climbing a rock wall in a designer gown. My favorites were Heather and Victoria (sorry Janet!), but the whole thing just didn’t do much for me. Read More »

It was tough, but I made it through the last two days of reality television to provide you, the reader, with some of the highlights of the best television from the weekend. It was difficult, but I swear that a six pack of Corona makes it really entertaining.

Ok, I’m lying I find it completely entertaining without drinking…maybe.

The Hills
The Hills has really impressed me this season. Somehow Lauren Conrad has wormed her way into America’s hearts and suddenly I find myself just rooting for the girl. Last night, though was really spectacular and I found myself wanting to jump through the TV and punch Spencer in the face.

Jason has returned from his little stint in rehab and reconnects with Lauren. We are all a little skeptical of his return but he seems sort of genuine in that Jason way that he wants to be friends with Lauren. She is hesitant as well but is doing the good ex-girlfriend thing and being there for him. They go to dinner and who do they see at the restaurant but Heidi and Spencer.

I have no doubt that MTV whispered sweet nothings about the restaurant in both of their ears, but still it was AMAZING to watch. Read More »

Last night marked the 19th season debut of that reality show that begat all other reality shows, The Real World. This season, producers decided to ship the cast of seven to Sydney, Australia, for four months of down-under debauchery. Whoopie.

I wasn’t planning on watching last night’s debut, but as with an awful car accident, once I stumbled onto it, I couldn’t turn away. I mean, the four girls are all incredibly hot.

There’s KellyAnne, a wild child from Texas who loves to party and admittedly loves to flirt with every boy in sight. There’s Tricia, from California, who lends an aura of superiority to everything she does. There’s Parisa, the show’s first ever Muslim, whom I guess producers felt would create enough drama that she’s ostensibly replaced both the show’s token African-American as well as the show’s token homosexual, and my personal favorite, Shauvon, a buxom beauty likewise from Cali who writes her own sex column at Sacramento State University and who may have the biggest set of breasts in the history of the Real World. Read More »

Ugh. Yet another reason for me to want to punch everyone involved with MTV.
According to this article from USA Today, the network has started taping TRL (that’s Total Request Live, for those of you not native to this planet) two days a week “in an effort to save money.”

MTV needs to save cash? All that network does these days is come up with vapid reality show after reality show, therefore completely side-stepping any need for actors or original content. What are they spending their money on? Unless it’s tight clothes for that cute VJ, (what’s his name? Damien? Like the devil?), they shouldn’t be using it for anything but getting new music to the general public.

According to the article, the total amount of TRL viewers ages 12 to 17 is “only 113,000, half what it was only two years ago”. According to some editor at Vibe magazine, a possible reason for this drop in viewers is that “pop music is much more fragmented these days”, therefore “lessening the desire of fans to congregate at a central place.” Read More »

For years now there have been mixed emotions about the War on Terror in Iraq. 

Some people are in favor of sending our troops across seas to fight someone else’s battle, while others are vehemently against it.   

The latter have taken many different actions in expressing their distaste for this never ending battle, and unnecessary sacrifice of so many of our American soldiers. 

From protests in the street to simple magnetic bumper-stickers in support of our troops, the country has definitely made its voice heard.  Today I even saw a man standing outside in the rain, on a busy street corner, holding a “Bring home our troops!” sign; the same man that has been reportedly standing on that very street corner for almost a year now. While the fight to bring our men (and women) home continues—one passionate individual at a time—there doesn’t seem to be much being done in returning these brave Americans, that have done more than enough already, back into the arms of loved ones and family. 

If anything it’s only getting worse, with President Bush’s recent command of 21,000 more American troops into Iraq.  

Luckily entities such as “Saturday Night Live” and “Mad TV,” among others, have been supplying the yearning American public with parodies and comical anecdotes about the war, as a means of easing the pains and frustrations felt by many.  A recent skit, aired on “Mad TV,”  invites the public to have a laugh at the ridiculous realities that our country and our army faces today—via the new (and obviously fictional) Apple invent, the iRack.

The New York Times reported in a recent article that the candidates for the 2008 election will be using social networking tools such as myspace as a campaign tool. So far, Barack Obama, John Edwards, Joseph Biden, and Dennis Kucinich have set up myspace pages, and Hillary Rodham Clinton, Rudy Giuliani, and Mitt Romney will launch their official pages in the coming weeks.

“Tom Anderson, 31, a MySpace founder, said, “MySpace has a method of reaching people who are historically not interested in voting” and may not read newspapers or watch news on television. He added: “A MySpace profile could excite their interest in ways they are used to. In the same way they learn about their friends, they could learn about a candidate.””

I’m not sure how I feel about this tactic, it seems sort of silly to me that candidates are setting up accounts on sites where typically it would be creepy for someone their age to be on. But, I can see the argument that at least it gets young people interested in the issues, even if they are just glancing at the pages briefly.

Here’s what I could come up with in terms of myspace pages that are up so far for each
candidate:

Barack Obama
Hillary Clinton
John Edwards
Joseph Biden
Dennis Kucinich
Mitt Romney

I personally think Kucinich’s is the most intense/cheesiest looking page…Check them out and see what you think!

Potential Pres on my network?

I’ve always been kind of intimidated by eBay-type websites. I like to just make my purchases and go on my merry way — none of this bidding bullsh!t. But since I rarely shy away from making a buck (I need all the cash I can get), I decided to make an acception.

Chegg.com, “as in chicken and egg” (no idea, but it’s cute, right?), is not only easy to navigate, but it’s also designed just for college students to buy and sell unwanted belongings. You absolutely have to be a student to use the site, which means no sketchy, creepy old people will be allowed to sell their used underwear or whatever.

So in a desperate attempt to scrounge up some moola, I put a few older, monsterous textbooks on there and waited for someone on my campus to bite. And low and behold, I made about $80. So easy and I got someone else a sweet deal.

All you have to do is create a free account (it literally takes less than a minute), buy or sell and either get/give the item in person or settle the transaction via snail mail. I highly suggest checking it out.

After graduating from Florida State less than a year ago, I made the big move to New York City. Yep, I did it. I joined the masses of aspiring writers, painters, singers, dancers, and just about every other “ers” you can think of. I’ve learned many lessons along the way, and while I’m still fresh into my twenties and still don’t know all that much, I can honestly say that, since graduation, I know a little more regarding work, friendships, and the opposite sex. The city does that to you, I guess.

Lately, I’ve been totally stressed about each of these aspects of life. Finding a meaningful career? Frustrating. Gaining true friendships? Hard. Meeting your soul mate? Yea, about that…. “WHERE IS HE ALREADY?” as Charlotte York would say. 

The other day as I was trekking through the aftermath of our most recent winter storm, I was contemplating it all. Thinking life is so unfair. That everyone else had everything in place where it should be, while all of my cards were spread out all over the table; and, oh yea, there’s one falling on the floor right now…and just as I was about to completely break down and scream at the top of my lungs, right there on the street (not that it would have phased any New Yorker), an entire sheet of ice and blocks of leftover snow decided to crumble and fall from the awning above, onto my head, at the exact moment in which I happened to pass by. Read More »