Vegans, Designers and PETA, Oh My!

Usually any news involving Tim Gunn makes me all fuzzy inside. Love the man. Throw Ellen DeGeneres and animal rights in the mix and life just starts getting peachy.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) just named Tim and Ellen their 2009 Man and Woman of the Year for their contributions to spreading awareness and advocating fair treatment of animals. Ellen is known for her vegan ways and, come to thing of it, I don’t remember King Gunn ever looking at a design including fur with assuring eyes. I expect him to utter a disappointed “Make It Work” to any designer who dares slap mink on a mannequin.

Throw some faux on it in the presence of the King.

Tyra To Peace Out—a la Oprah

“I’ve been loving having fun, coming into your living rooms, bedrooms, hair salons for the past five years.”

Those are the words that model, talk show host and diva extraordinaire Tyra Banks spoke when she announced to People Magazine that this season would be the final season of the Tyra Banks Show. Umm…sound like anyone we know of? It’s been pretty clear that the more established talk show queen, Oprah, took a “liking” to Tyra after Oprah invited her to co-host a show following the news of Rihanna’s unfortunate situation with singer Chris Brown. Tyra opened up about her own history of enduring physical abuse—a topic that Oprah related to as well. They joined forces to tackle the issue and their empowering words set them on an even higher pedestal of female influence.

So why end the franchise? You’d think that after getting the master out of the way that the apprentice would take her time to shine. Not in this case. I’m sure Tyra felt a small sense of pressure, though. Fans had been comparing her to Oprah for some time, not only because of her race, but because of her personality. Don’t lie—you probably got a hint of Oprah’s famous “Harrison Ford is HERE!” voice in Tyra’s outbursts on her own show. She was, in a way, prepping to take over. It was a position of power that, apparently, Tyra didn’t want. Best of luck with your future endeavors, girl. Where’s my Tivo? Time for some ANTM reruns.

Christmas and Me

My sister keeps getting things, mainly hairbrushes from her never-ending assortment of dolls, stuck in her hair and she cries rivers to let us know that she needs help to yank them out. My cousin won’t stop badgering me about playing video games on my computer and his sister, forever his cohort, can’t help but be precious and adorable—though she attempts to be just as equally persistent as her big bro (don’t ever take her Barbie away from her). My mom made breakfast and when I finished, Lady Gaga’s “Christmas Tree” was the first video I went to watch on YouTube. Snow this year was replaced with rain and our two African Grey parrots understand the importance of yelling above the sound of pounding rain outside.

Two hours later, “Marley and Me” helped remind me what it means to love things—like all the aforementioned—in spite of their flaws. Well, it wasn’t the first time I learned that lesson, but everyone needs an HBO pick-me-up every once in a while. My Christmas so far, though it has been an everlasting tip-of-the-hat to my obsession with pop music and cheesy movies, has been decent. Ring in the cheer and stuff. I plan to be in bed by 9. I’m still on break. Happy Holidays!

Brittany Murphy

News of Brittany Murphy’s death came to me shortly after it happened and I honestly didn’t know how to take it. I’ve never really followed her career to any extent and the movies that immediately come to mind when I think of her are “Uptown Girls”—I saw it once…It was cute—and “Clueless,” of course.

If anything, Murphy’s death made me realize, yet again, how short life is. 32. Damn. How clichéd, you may think. Well, it’s true. All I can say is Rest In Peace. It’s just weird. Confusing and just…weird. And why can’t more respectable news sources break these deaths? It’s like TMZ has reporters follow these poor people in dire times just to break news. What am I saying?

Of course that’s what they do.

Avatar: Visual Effects Porn

It took two times seeing Avatar to finally say that I liked it. The first time, I was expecting so much after hearing that the movie took, what, like 50 years to conceive and then actually create. I took a step back and realized the on-screen splendor may take an extra movie ticket and not to mention an additional $2.50 for 3-D glasses to fully enjoy. So I did. I went back to the theater and dropped some Washingtons—all in the pursuit of the full experience. Meaning, I got dragged into seeing it by a couple of high-schoolers and my best friend.

Relief as it was to see Sigourney Weaver on the sci-fi silver again, the rest of the cast offered limited acting experience, at least to me, and the visual effects themselves seemed to tread into the waters of superfluity as opposed to natural effectivity.

But, as I said, another view of the movie (with my handy-dandy 3-D glasses) helped me realize what I, for some odd reason, missed the first time. Avatar is more than an extended cut-scene from a Square Enix video game, it has a true heart to its story of natives overcoming globalization and love blurring the lines between…species. Go see it.

And bring an extra $2.50 with you.

Jim Is Getting So…Mean

After attempting to catch up on several episodes of “The Office” on my bffl On Demand, I’ve noticed something. Jim, played by everyone’s favorite guy John Krasinski, has become quite the meany-head. His promotion to manager earlier in the season marked a huge turnaround in Dunder Mifflin. And his recent marriage to Pam just added more stress and more of a reason for Jim to get tense and hard-headed.

Whereas before, he was a nice guy, the guy who would take Michael Scott’s antics with a grain of salt, he’s now on a bit of a power trip—entering the middle of the office and making declarations like: “So, who’s heard the rumor that I’m not as much in power as Michael?” He’s not to the point of totalitarianism, but he’s definitely getting there.

Here’s my plea: Please go back to being Nice Jim. I can’t stand seeing you like this. It’s not me…it’s you.

The Not-So-Fantastic Ms. Fox

Am I the only person who does not think that Megan Fox is attractive? I know several beer-guzzling, polo/aviator-wearing bros will hunt me down tomorrow for this one, but I’m sorry. I just think she is a whole lot of sleaze and empty sex appeal.

Maybe I’m being too harsh. Yes, she is a “talented” and…*ahem* gifted young woman, but I can’t honestly look at her in Transformers and say: well that’s a wholesome woman that I’d like to take home (though I’d never say that about…any woman. Cue this crappy sound effect I found)

But I guess I am just sorely mistaken as Megan’s “body of work” was just (of course) ranked as the “Hottest Moment of 2009” by Maxim and E! Check out the video below.

Zeta-Jones’ Broadway Review: Meh

A while back, I told you guys about Catherine Zeta-Jones’ casting in the Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim’s “A Little Night Music.”

Well, the New York Times review is in. The verdict? She was…okay. Ben Brantley said the “arch banter” of the show didn’t come naturally to Jones and his review, though greatly written—a usual for Brantley—hints at the fact that he was trying to find good in the production aside from the star-studded cast that also includes Broadway dame Angela Lansbury.

Read the review here.

Lady Gaga Bromance

I could not blog about this next Lady Gaga-related topic without crediting former Ithacan pop culture blogger, Andy Swift. We were discussing a video I found of a Sam Tsui singing a medley of Lady Gaga with his childhood friend, Kurt Hugo accompanying him on guitar. Our short Facebook convo opened my eyes to a peculiar possibility.  Watch the video below and watch their interview with Bonnie Hunt. Then read on.

Done watching? Ok. SO. Not only did our friend Sam slightly “alter” Gaga’s lyrics to sounds less…gay, but in the interview, he also tries to tastefully avoid the fact that he sang a girl’s part to the guy he so often records video with. A budding love? Or just a bromance with Lady Gaga undertones?

You decide.

Sectionals

My friends. Let us hold hands, look to the stars and rejoice. For a great time has come. Let us thank the cast and creators of Glee for gifting us with a season of drama, sexting, hairography and Single Ladies. For three months, we’ve enjoyed (and hated) 12 feel-everything episodes that brought us from a simple overdone song to a vast array of song covers, not to mention stellar acting, dancing and general fierceness.

The time has come for that to all end. Sectionals. The word has been on the mouths of every Gleek since September. And now, the Glee kids that entered our hearts, homes and dorms will finally compete for glory — sans slushy-in-face.

What I ask for is simple: belting. Give me notes that make me feel like a chihuahua on steroids. Let me hear every single Glee club member at their full capacity and potential. Give me something to hold me over until, dare I say it, 2010 when the show returns.

So let’s hear it for Sectionals…Gigantic stage where dreams are made of. There’s nothing you can’t do. Now you’re in Sectionals. This stage will make you feel brand new — ok I’ll just stop.

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