Pop Culture Ramblings

Pop Culture Potpourri — 2/11/11

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Hey there! Welcome to this week’s installment of Pop Culture Potpourri. This week I’m talking about my favorite bridal reality shows, the return of Glee and more.

Let’s get down to business. First up are my favorite bridal reality shows My Fair Wedding, Rich Bride, Poor Bride; Say Yes to the Dress and Four Weddings.

My Fair Wedding

It was uncomfortable watching this week’s episode. I love the color pink as much as the next person, if not more so I thought that everything looked beautiful but I don’t think I’d want cancer to the theme of my dream wedding.

Her wig was beautiful and seeing it styled to suit her on her wedding day gave me hope that I’ll be able to find a wig and a style that’ll suit my day-to-day life.

I have to say again that I just don’t think that I would want cancer to be the theme of my wedding day. I want this all to be over and done with and put in the past. I would want my wedding day to be full of happy thoughts and plans for the future not sad and scary remembrances. It was a beautiful wedding and she looked very happy but it was not for me.

Moving on to less serious topics …

Rich Bride, Poor Bride

Oh my God! Rich Bride, Poor Bride; I don’t even know where to start. Oh yeah I do. I’ll start with the truth. Money can’t buy you class or taste.

Holy hell this week’s bride, I think her name was Michelle (M for more) looked like a rooster with that awful feather headpiece on her head. Whoever told her that looked good was seriously pulling an Emperor’s New Clothes job on her. Sheesh! The hat she just had to have to go with her nighttime look was equally awful. I suppose she felt the same way because I never saw her wear it.

And, seriously wasn’t she just a bit too old for the whole “my daddy will write a check” shtick? I think by age 31 you should have enough sense and maturity to understand that money does in fact not grow on trees and that there are things that you might want but that you just can’t or shouldn’t have.

C’mon now. $3,000 for a wedding dress for a photo shoot with her dog? Really. I love my cats, truly I do but no way would I spend $3,000 for a dress to take a picture with them in. In fact if I really wanted a wedding photo Cuppy and Snowy I’d take it after the wedding in my actual wedding dress. Why would you spend more money on a dress that you’re going to wear for an hour that no one is going to see? As it turned out you couldn’t see the dress in the photo anyway.

I think people who frivolously spend money like that don’t understand or care exactly how much money $3,000 is and how much work it takes to make $3,000.

A person making minimum wage in NJ ($7.25) makes $1,160 before taxes and benefits. That means it would take more than 3 months of full paychecks to save. If you were to save only have of the approximately $986 per month (after taxes) it would take more than 6 months and if you could somehow scrape together a quarter of your take-home pay for savings it would take more than 1 full year to save $3,000.

Speaking of savings, with $3,000 you could buy 4 shares of Google at $624.50 per share; 8 shares of Apple at $356.85 per share; 69 shares of Disney at $43.41 per share; 105 shares of AT&T at 28.47 per share; 140 shares of GE at $21.33 per share; or 178 shares of Yahoo at $16.85 per share.

You could splurge on a long weekend (3 nights, 4 days) in NYC and stay at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in a 1 bedroom suite on the concierge floor and have enough left over for two people to eat the most expensive items on the menu (appetizers & entrees) and each have dessert and coffee and still be able to leave a 20% tip at the Russian Tea Room.

The entire wedding cost $96,950. The original budget was $72,000. That means they were over budget by $24,950.

For $24,950 you could buy every employee at Google a $1 soda from a fast food joint with $4,329 left over to spent 3 nights and 4 days at the Waldorf Astoria, eat dinner at the Russian Tea Room and still have more than $1,000 left over to go shoe shopping at Jimmy Choo.

For $24,950 you could take 249 families out to a $100 dinner and one family out for a $50 dinner.

You can buy a 1.5 carat Tiffany Legacy engagement ring.

You can also buy a 1.5 carat emerald cut with tapered baguettes engagement from Tiffany.

Someone making $12 an hour makes exactly $10 more in A YEAR before taxes.

That’s 2 years of rent/mortgage with $950 left over for utility bills or savings.

That’s 1 semester of education (4 classes) at Harvard with $7,462 left over to put toward books and next semester’s tuition.

Say Yes to the Dress

I’ve been losing interest in this Friday night program but this week they featured an unusual but gorgeous red wedding dress complete with red veil and detachable ball gown skirt. Oh my gosh the red itself was a gorgeous red and the dress was simply magnificent with a huge ball down skirt for the ceremony and a straighter shorter skirt for the reception.

“We Can’t Help You Unless We Know”

I find the consultants take themselves too seriously. Rodney and Debbie’s talking heads were laughable this week. They were beside themselves because their bride neglected to tell them she’d seen a dress somewhere else and was just at Kleinfelds to look at more dresses. So what if she wanted to see what Kleinfeld’s had to offer? Maybe she wants to see your perspective and fashion sense. What if she wants your fashion advice? Please get over yourselves.

Four Weddings

I loved Deyana’s $150,000 Egyptian wedding. I can’t believe she lost. But again I have to go on about ridiculous spending. Her family sold land in Egypt in order to pay for her extravagant wedding. It’s one day! One day. My gosh that’s more than my house cost. For that kind of money the happy couple could have bought a house without ever having to shoulder the burden of a mortgage. What are people thinking?

There was a huge financial disparity this week. Danielle’s modern Italian wedding cost $50,000 while Dee Dee’s Thai wedding cost $22,000 and Julianne’s Brazilian Puerto Rican carnival cost $20,000. I guess more expensive doesn’t necessarily mean better. Go figure. (yes, kids that’s sarcasm)

Moving on from bridal (non) reality …

Holy bad makeup Batman! It’s the Glam Fairy! Did anybody see this mess on The Style Network? The premise of this episode(?) was she had set up a photo shoot for a sorority. I think it was a membership drive type thing. I’m not sure who they were trying to recruit but the vision of the Glam Fairy was to dress them up as naughty school girls and give them trashy hair and makeup. This was a train wreck. Those poor girls, I hope they didn’t pay for the photo shoot, clothes, hair or makeup. The Glam Fairy needs to rename herself the Hooker Fairy. She might actually find a niche market for her Glam Studio. *shakes head*

I must be maturing or reality TV is getting even more mindless. I can’t seem to bring myself to sit through Holly’s World and I watched every season of The Girls Next Door and Kendra. And Oh.my.God Joan and Melissa is totally unwatchable. I made it about 5 minutes into the first episode. I thought I might enjoy Stand Up Mother but I was asleep a few minutes in.

I guess I’ll have to wait for The Next Great Restaurant and Celebrity Apprentice for more good reality TV.

Gleeful Glee’s Back !!!

Sooooo? What’d you think? Did you love it? Was it worth the wait? Did it live up to the hype? I loved the Super Bowl episode. I must have one of those blue wigs! Those were awesome with a heaping side of great.

I was however a little disappointed in their rendition of “Thriller”. It actually took up very little time of the episode. It was however a great story line and I liked that it wasn’t happily ever after TV fantasy. It was a sad ending and I appreciated the realistic writing.

Well kids that’s it for this installment of Pop Culture Potpourri. Thanks for reading. Stop by again next week!

Love,

~ Carol Anne

Pop Culture Potpourri — Bits & Pieces Edition

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Hello and welcome to this week’s edition of Pop Culture Potpourri. That’s right, this week’s edition. I may have bitten off more than I can chew and overestimated my pop culture consumption when I first declared Pop Culture Potpourri would be a daily occurrence. From here on out it’s a fun Friday feature.

Speaking of fun has anyone seen the newest programming promo spot on WE TV? There is a new show scheduled to begin on June 21, Staten Island Cakes. Yes! You read that right, Staten Island Cakes. I missed out on the Cake Boss craze but I love Amazing Wedding Cakes and Ace of Cakes. I can’t wait for this to premiere. I haven’t seen an episode of Amazing Wedding Cakes in a while. I wonder if we’re due for a new season or if it was cancelled. Hmmm… I’ll have to look into that.

While I’m on the topic of yummy delicious cakes and TV check out Kati Angelini’s of Kati’s Kupcakes in Moorestown, NJ audition video for season 3 of Cupcake Wars. Wish her luck on Twitter @katiskupcakes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65aV0ULOHQw


Holy Colored Eyebrows Batman!

http://www.mystyle.com/mystyle/b6127_fearless_fad_checker_colors_her.html
Have you seen this *points to above link* Fearless Fad Checker snippet on the Style Network? Oh my gosh she has blue eyebrows. Somebody please tell me that this is just runway makeup and that there aren’t women running around with colored eyebrows. How would anyone who isn’t blonde work this fad?

Netflix Confused. Film at 11.

I think Netflix may be a little confused about the movies and TV shows they think I’ll like. They suggest that I’ll enjoy Psychic Kids: Season 1 based on the fact that I liked Corina Corina. *scratches head* I love Corina Corina. It’s one of my favorite movies and I don’t recall there being psychic kids or anything remotely paranormal in the movie. I think the folks or programs at Netflix and Twitter need a little work.

Teen Queens do Syfy (Mylie Cyrus this is your first and only warning)

Debbie, I’m sorry Deborah Gibson and Tiffany are starring in a movie entitled Mega Python vs. Gatoroid on the Syfy Network. Pay attention Mylie Cyrus. This is your life in 30 years if you aren’t careful.

Inspire a Song (Contest)

In my former life I was calendar editor for a local parenting magazine. After I left I kept in touch with some of the folks I listed in the calendar. On Wednesday I saw this in my e-mail. So go for it! Send the folks at Two of a Kind your ideas for a song. How cool would that to be to have a song inspired your ideas? Let me know if you enter and/or win.

A Song Idea Contest!! We’re getting ready to record a new CD, and we want to hear YOUR ideas for a new song. We encourage kids and adults to send us their ideas, and we will turn the winning entry into a song that we will record on our new CD.  Ideas can be as little as a word or a title, or as big as a whole detailed story.  Ideas can be funny, serious, silly, poignant or otherwise – whatever you think would make a good song!  The deadline is February 25, 2011.  Send us your ideas by email: 2ofakind@comcast.net

It’s All About the Brides Baby!

It’s Friday afternoon, time to talk Bridal reality TV. I have to say this week’s batch of bridal reality was just meh at best. I think Say Yes to the Dress was a rerun and Four Brides was a really boring special titled something like Blunders. It wasn’t anything we hadn’t seen before and it wasn’t even bitchy or snarky enough to be funny or infuriating. TLC if you stop entertaining me on Friday nights I’m going to be forced to like read a book or something.

I always look forward to Rich Bride, Poor Bride and My Fair Wedding Sunday nights and even these episodes were less than impressive. If I were the couple on Rich Bride, Poor Bride I’d have been heartily disappointed in the job their wedding planner did. I don’t think he managed to bring their vision of a tropical wedding to life at all. A tiki hut bar does not a tropical wedding make. It makes a tacky wedding. I did love Dipika’s beautiful red ceremony dress and gorgeous blue reception dress. They were both to die for. I think they were over budget by something like $14,725. I didn’t write the numbers down this week but if I were over budget by more than $14,000 I’d want my wedding to be lavish and luscious and ripe with tropical flavor and really this was anything but. Very boring. I’m totally disappointed.

I normally adore My Fair Wedding but the past two weeks were just kind of meh. Last week’s show, which I didn’t write about was a Wizard of Oz theme and much as I love David I don’t think he hit this one out of the park. I did however love what he did with the safari themed wedding. Everything was gorgeous. It was the bride I just couldn’t bear. Hey girlie! You’re getting a wedding that most of us couldn’t afford in our wildest dreams.

So that’s it for this week’s round up of Pop Culture Potpourri. Stop back next week for more wedding TV snark, thoughts about 2 Glee episodes (Yay!) and my musings on all things pop culture. Until then be good!

Love,

~ Carol Anne

Pop Culture Potpourri — 1/28/11

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Greetings from my new lil office space upstairs! I hope today’s note finds you all well and enjoying this refreshing lack of snow. *laughs*

Now that the blood clot is no longer in my brain and I’m no longer taking blood thinners Chuck thought it would be a good idea for me to move to someplace other than on the couch in the living room and so here I am on the second floor at my new IKEA desk sitting in my new pink IKEA chair writing to you.

I know that I said Pop Culture Ramblings was a new daily feature but it may have to move to biweekly or perhaps weekly. The truth is some of the shows I love aren’t really grist for the pop culture mill. I love Parenthood and Harry’s Law and Off the Map and I suppose I could recap the shows for you but there are plenty of sites out there with better writers than myself that do that sort of thing on a daily basis.  For the time being I think I’ll stick to writing about wedding reality shows and the Jersey reality shows though I think that after this Sunday I’ll be down to one Jersey reality show. I think that this Sunday is the season finale of Jerseylicious.

Speaking of the Jersey reality shows. Did you hear that the next season of Jersey Shore is going to be filmed in Italy? Now how silly is that? I was opposed to the move to Miami and I’m opposed to the move to Italy. How can MTV continue to film a show entitled Jersey Shore in places other than the Jersey Shore? If they’re looking for new places to film there are plenty of towns that would welcome the tourism boost. Why not move to the South Jersey Shore to Wildwood or Atlantic City? There are plenty of Italians to be found in South Jersey too. Why are all these Jersey reality shows filmed in North Jersey? Inquiring minds want to know.

Well it’s Friday night kids, time for my weekly doses of Say Yes To the Dress and Four Weddings. I’m sorry I’m a week late rambling on about last week’s show. I’ll do better next week. I promise.

I’m growing sort of bored with Say Yes To the Dress. I’m sorry to say that I don’t love any of the dresses. To use a term I’ve seen on Television Without Pity’s forums, many of the dresses look like Stripper Fairy Wedding Dresses. I really can’t argue with or come up with a better description of the sheer corseted dresses covered in crystals. Even the most modest of brides end up leaving with strapless dresses. Don’t they make dresses with sleeves anymore? I got married in November in Philadelphia. I’d have frozen to death in a strapless or spaghetti strap gown. What do all the winter brides do? Freeze? Wear a wrap?

The two notes I took about last week’s episodes were about Antonella going $600 over her budget to buy the dress she fell in love with and about Liza spending $17,000 on her first wedding dress for the wedding in Nigeria and then choosing to spend another $40,000-$50,000 for her second wedding in Canada. Now obviously Liza’s family was fabulously wealthy, but Antonella obviously was not. I don’t see how people can just spend $600 above their budgeted price. Not to put too fine a point on it but is more than half of one of my paychecks when I was working. A $2,600 dress would take almost three full paychecks for me to come up with. That’s without spending money for food, rent, other wedding expenses, utility bills, etc. If you put $600 dollars away per pay period it would take 2 ½ months to save. $600 dollars is easily rent or two car payments, or groceries and essentials for a month (@ $150 per week). I don’t get it. How can these girls justify just blowing the budget for a dress that they are going to wear for a few hours on one day of their lives? I know the prevailing thought on all of these shows is that it’s her “big day” and that she should have the absolute very best money can buy. But in reality we aren’t all fabulously wealthy with money to burn. What happened to living within our means and buying the best dress that you can afford? I know people use settling like it’s a dirty word but that’s the way life is. I don’t see how you can have a happy life always wanting more than you can afford. Okay, preaching over or at least until I get to Rich Bride, Poor Bride.

My other Friday night wedding reality show is Four Brides, which I absolutely adore. I get to see four weddings in the space of an hour. I will say that sometimes I don’t think it’s a fair playing field in terms of budgets but this week’s show had some of the closest budgets I’ve seen. Tanisha and Janitza both spent $25,000 for their weddings while Rachel spent $35,000 and Hannah spent $40,000 theirs. These were also probably the least bitchy and whiny brides I’ve seen on the show lately, which was nice. I wish TLC’ website gave more information about the weddings because I loved Rachel’s venue and I’d love to know if it was an active church or a converted space that utilized the church’s beautiful architecture. Rachel, who ultimately won had some wonderful ideas. I loved the rose petals raining down from the balconies as she walked down the aisle and the bag pipers who were part of her walk up the aisle. She pretty much lost me after that. Her and her soon to be husband are performers and pretty much performed throughout the ceremony. Call me crazy but I feel that marriage is a sacred act and I feel you should honor the moment you’re giving yourselves to one another. Carry on all you want at the reception but treat the wedding ceremony itself with the weight it deserves.

Permit me one final note about last Friday evening’s TV viewing. Last Friday night Keith Olbermann signed off the last time on MSNBC. I enjoyed his show and will miss his Friday’s with Thurber as well as his intelligent and thoughtful commentary. I hope he finds a new home soon. I’ll watch him wherever he goes.

Pop Culture Potpourri (Thoughts on American Idol)

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I’m sitting here watching American Idol for lack of something better to watch. And I’m asking myself, When did it become entertaining to watch delusional people have their dreams squashed? I mean what kinds of assholes have we become?

What if instead of hours of watching the auditions of people who are obviously going to be embarrassed when these episodes are shown Fox creates a new show. A show that takes someone with a little bit of talent and gives them a mentor and a vocal coach and music lessons, a stylist, a publicist, etc. Why not put the full weight of the entertainment industry behind helping someone achieve their dreams? No auditions broadcast. No mockery or snark. Just a year long look at someone working to achieve their dreams with help. I mean it certainly is who you know rather than what you know out there. Why not give us hope while showing us how it’s done? Why not lift us up rather than leave us cackling at others’ misery?

We’re better than this. I’m better than this. I’ve changed the channel and won’t be back. If we’re going to ask pundits and politicians to give up the violent rhetoric and to stop regarding those who don’t share their opinions as enemies then we should ask our entertainers to live above the fray as well.

Pop Culture Potpourri returns tomorrow with thoughts on wedding reality shows.

Pop Culture Potpourri — 1/19/11

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Hey! Good afternoon my dear lil readers. I hope today finds you all well and enjoying the reprieve from the bitter cold snowy/icy/slushy weather.

Today is Wednesday, January 19. It’s Edgar Allen Poe’s birthday. Happy birthday Edgar!

I finally got to watch My Fair Wedding. The Alice in Wonderland wedding was everything I hoped for and more. Her black dress was gorgeous. Both of her hats were spectacular; the bridesmaids’ jewelry was fantastic. Oh my gosh! The reception space was incredible. David please throw me a Halloween vows renewal.

Okay, I’m also caught up on Rich Bride, Poor Bride. The hubs loves the last few minutes of this show when they tell how much they spent on the wedding and how much over budget they are. I just can’t wrap my head around spending so much on one day. Where do people get money like that for one day? Who decides they want two wedding rings because two looks better than one? How are these people going to be able to manage their finances and keep roofs over their heads and food on the table? They have to be starting their married lives in massive debt.

Original budget $42,000

Actually spent $69,862

Over budget by 27, 862

That’s 27 months (2 yrs., 3 months) of rent or mortgage @ $1,000 a month.

That’s 23 YEARS of cable TV, Internet, and phone bills if you have Comcast Triple Play.

That’s more than 3 years of groceries at $150 per week.

You could eat 27,862 cheeseburgers from the dollar menu at any fast food joint. That’s 1 cheeseburger a day for 76 years.

You could drink a $5 cup of coffee every day for 15 years.

According to Lotpro.com you could buy any one of the following 20 cars in cash with no car payment. That’s from the under $30,000 group alone. There are some pretty nice cars in this list.

20 Cars under $27,862

1. 2011 Honda Odyssey, 2. 2011 Ford Edge, 3. 2011 Buick LaCrosse, 4. 2011 Subaru Impreza Sedan WRX, 5. 2011 Dodge Charger, 6. 2011 Acura TSX. 7. 2011 Nissan Quest, 8. 2011 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited, 9. 2011 Toyota Highlander, 10. 2011 Nissan Pathfinder, 11. 2011 Audi A3, 12. 2011 Chrysler 200, 13. 2011 Toyota FJ Cruiser, 14. 2011 Toyota Venza, 15. 2011 Honda Civic Hybrid, 16. 2011 Volkswagen Routan, 17. 2011 Volvo S40, 18. 2011 Chrysler 300, 19. 2011 Mazda RX-8, 20. 2011 Subaru Impreza Wagon WRX

Speaking of cars, that’s more than 4 years of $500 per month car payments.

$27,862 is 2,786,200 pennies.

Do you get where I’m going with this? What an incredibly ridiculous sum of money $27,862 is to be over budget by.

Their original budget was $42,000. I don’t remember how many people were invited to the wedding, but if you pay $150 a head for 200 guests that’s $30,000 leaving $12,000 for limo, DJ, favors, cake, wedding dress, etc.

Okay that’s it for this edition of Pop Culture Potpourri. Thanks for reading.