Basis Of Appeal

There's no cable in my house.

There's never been cable in my house growing up, but at college, in the style of grand American tradition, I generally had cable. This semester, nope. This is fine with me. I have luckily found a friend two blocks away who has HBO. [Read: True Blood fix, taken care of.] As I was saying. This lack of cable has made TV watching a little bit more creative at times and a bit more squeamish at times.

The other day I will shamefully admit I watched an entire hour of Divorce Court. When the defendant bellowed at the judge that his wife was a nag and asked "Have you ever been married to Fidel Castro?" I knew the time had come to turn off the television. During this one hour period I was exposed to various commercials. I now know various shows, popular shows, are coming to mainstream television channels. Amongst these are Entourage and Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Now, I guess my question is, why did this weird me out? I've always heard great things about both. Now that they've become accessible to me, why wouldn't I want to watch them? Why would I have been willing to pay to see them before, but now, they're free, and the desire is gone? I feel like it's similar to wanting the it-bag then finding it completely grotesque after seeing it knocked off at one to many mall kiosks. Why is that?

I think the basis of appeal of anything in today's world is how trendy it is. Maybe those shows are great. I probably won't ever know, unless of course, they stop playing Divorce Court [which, by the way, has it's own Facebook page. I am NOT kidding.] There just doesn't seem to be a point in watching them now that the episodes are reruns, everyone has seen them, and well... they're just lost the basis of their appeal.

♥

Lini.

@BarackObama

I recently read this article that said one of Obama's strengths is his mastery of the digital era. Tweets pour out from Capitol Hill nowadays, whereas his predecessors didn't seem to have a grasp on the English language, much less a keyboard. In the same magazine, I read a lovely little blurb which brought up the point of the ever charming Ms. Palin's strength- her appeal to the stay-at-home mom. A long ignored voter, this group finally found a candidate to relate to.

I find two slight issues with all of this. First of all, with Ms. "I can see Russia from my house!", it's wonderful a neglected group finally found someone to reach out too. I wish it had been someone else, but what can you do? I just feel this trend stretches out in everything. Everything has a target market. I personally am studying design, and it always seems to boil down to will someone buy what you're making, and better yet- who? People look at things and it has to remind them of something. "That's soo vintage." "Omg, that would totally sell at Banana Republic." "I can see my sister wearing that." Is it possible for people, any people, whatever they're into, to not be into anything? Can politicians just target voters in general? Do they need the black vote, the mom vote? Do I need the upper-class customer? The trendy customer? Can't people just need each other?

Second issue is really...does Obama actually use Twitter? I wonder. I mean if McCain tweeted at Snookie from the Jersey Shore nothing surprises me. A little while back I think the internet was aconsidered lazy, for people sitting at home wasting time online. Now, it's the fountain of innovation.

Do I need to blog about what's trendy and in?

That's what the new internet customer wants, after all.

By the way, loved your speak today Barack!

Our combat mission in ending, but our commitment to Iraq's future is not.

Say what you want, the man talks pretty.

Or can I blog about whatever I want?

Like this gourmet chocolate company in Philadelphia my roommate showed me today?

mmmmmmmm!

Before you rush to answer, I already know the answer to my what can I blog about question.

It's not what I wanna hear.

♥ Lini.

What's a picture worth again?

So, so adorable.

& forever.

I read a lot, and I can't say it's all very good or useful. When I read anything online, I especially cannot say it's good, useful, or true. For example, I read a very serious article claiming beauty trends next year would showcase the makeup depicted above and drawn-on unibrows for women. I've spared you all the photographic evidence of the latter. So, essentially, I read with caution because as fun as those painted lips look, I refuse to accept they're going to become a trend. I don't really think they're going to become a runway trend, and editorial trend, an anything trend. I think I will never see these lips again. But hey, I could be wrong.

In my readings I came upon an article with a title along the lines of "How Twitter is Making Us Better and Happier People". I had to read this because 1. I really don't understand the novelty of Twitter to the extent everyone else seems to & 2. I'm addicted to reading articles with outlandish claims. What can I say, I'm just a product of my generation.

I expected to find the contents as implausible as women willingly donning monobrows, but I was actually surprised. The basic point which I took from it was by reaching out on Twitter and other social networks, we're able to make light of situations which would normally stress us out. By me tweeting "Omfg. My family is getting so damn annoying. Cannot WAIT to move out!" and having people tweet back at me, suddenly an aggravating situation has become a topic of conversation. Or, you could say "Just got laid off, but fuck it, who wants to go celebrate not having to wake up early and make that awful commute anymore!!" And suddenly you have amazing plans for your evening, people who are also unemployed reaching out to you, and a newsfeed of things to occupy your now jobless self with. It's like suffering is the key to popularity because the more outrageous your life is going, the better tweets you'll have, and the more attention you'll get, and the happier you'll be! I'm not sure if I'd consider this the key to true joy in life, but it's something, no? Even the word tweet sounds cute!

Maybe it's merely justifying how much time we spend online, or how much of our lives we broadcast to the world... Typing away the events of our day and hitting enter so our "followers" can keep up with our every more. Maybe Twitter just wants us to believe we're being benefitted. Whatever it is, I never really thought of social networking sites as the secret to anyone's happiness.

I apologize for how sloppy these entries are sounding lately. I am just so tired, I feel old. Twitter should work on figuring out the secret to enternal youth next, like really.

On that note, I love the Uffie/Pharell video for ADD SUV. Check it out, one of her best songs in my opinion.

♥ Lini.