Gone Fishin'

Well, not really...I've never fished in my life. But I am taking a break.

Isn't It Ironic, Don'tcha Think?

So I've been watching Ugly Betty, Season 1 on DVD (I didn't get hooked on it until the second season) and recently saw an episode where there was controversy because Mode, the magazine where Betty works, wanted to slim down photos of an actress. In real life, it is doubtful that the actress would be there in the room as the editors are discussing what "cuts" to make, but on the show it makes for good drama. The actress didn't feel so great about this, but the editors assured her that there were taking her great look and making even better.

If art is not reflecting reality as it really is, then it tends to be prescient...so I couldn't believe that just today the editor of Self magazine (a publication that in essence is supposedly encouraging its female readers to believe in themselves) were quoted saying that they altered Kelly Clarkson's image to make her look her 'personal best' (which sounds A LOT like what the Mode Editors said on Ugly Betty) and that magazine covers aren't supposed to look real since they are inspirational/aspirational (something else that was said on the show).

They'd like you to think that that doctor photos to give you something to aim for, when really the photos are doctored so that you'll want to buy more products--either because you are "inspired" or because you feel lousy and hope that more stuff can improve your look.

Rest in Peace?

So I must have been doing a pretty lousy job of representing myself because the other day someone after I greeted someone I hadn't seen in quite a while, she said, "Are you working?" Um...when am I NOT working? I replied that I am always working and that I've never had the luxury of not working. Not sure what gave her the impression that I might not be working...I think the last time I saw her, I might have been hunting for additional contract work, but I work as I hunt.

After this exchange, someone else came up to me to express their condolences over the dying newspaper industry.

Here I am a lady of leisure who is connected to a moribund industry. If only I had known earlier that I had a such a restful existence...

Potpourri

After reading about Peggy Cooper Cafritz's amazing collection of art by African American artists, I was saddened to hear that Cafritz lost a lot of that art in a fire at her home. The good thing is that she was not home at the time. I had no idea that such a great patron of artists lived in my area and I think it is amazing that she is determined to keep collecting.

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I wrote about an Asian movie that has been referred to as a 'Chinese Sex and the City' the other day. Really, it wasn't like Sex and the City at all, but we need easy categories to give people some frame of reference. Of course the "women in the city" genre is nothing new, movies like Three on a Match took on that topic in the 1930s.