SoapBoxVille 2.0

Newer, Better, Stronger, More Mature

  • About Me
  • About Soapboxville
  • The Cancer Diaries
Newer, Better, Stronger, More Mature

Pop Culture Potpourri

Pop Culture Potpourri — 2/11/11

February 11, 2011 by carol anne 2 Comments

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

Posted in: Pop Culture Ramblings Tagged: Apple, AT&T, blue wigs, Celebrity, Four Weddings, GE, Glam Fairy, Glee, Google, Harvard, Holly’s World, Jimmy Choo, Joan and Melissa, Kendra, My Fair Wedding, Pop Culture Potpourri, Rich Bride Poor Bride, Russian Tea Room, Say Yes to the Dress, Stand Up Mother, Super Bowl, The Girls Next Door, The Next Great Restaurant, The Style Network, Tiffany, Waldorf Astoria

Pop Culture Potpourri — Bits & Pieces Edition

February 4, 2011 by carol anne Leave a Comment

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

Posted in: Pop Culture Ramblings Tagged: Ace of Cakes, Amazing Wedding Cakes, Cake Boss, colored eyebrows, Corina Corina, Cupcake Wars, David Tutera, Deborah Gibson, Fearless Fad Checker, Four Weddings, Kati’s, Mega Python vs. Gatoroid, My Fair Wedding, Netflix, Pop Culture Potpourri, Rich Bride Poor Bride, Say Yes to the Dress, Staten Island Cakes, Style Network, Syfy Network, Tiffany, TLC, Two of a Kind, WE TV

Copyright © 2021 SoapBoxVille 2.0.

Family WordPress Theme by themehall.com