On Today's Most FAMOUS Elopement

Well, who knew that Sunday would be the day when elopement would emerge as a trend, and today would be the day when it would be officially OVER. Thank you, Heidi and Spencer, for masterminding your most recent US Weekly cover. Now, there are all kinds of tidbits of ridiculousness to analyze re: these two, but I for one am most fascinated by the conversation that must have occurred to bring about this momentous day. If it was anything like this, my dreams will be fulfilled.

Spencer: [Flipping through Star] God, it's been a slow week in celebrity news. Lindsay and Samantha relationship counseling? [Jerking off hand motion]

Heidi: I know, baby! More baby pictures! Someone else should have a baby! And name it Queens! [Staring at her Sidekick]

Spencer: Or a wedding. When was the last big celebrity wedding? Jay-Z and Beyonce? And they were so...classy about it. As if they don't understand that photos equal cash. Come on, braw.

Heidi: I want to wear a white dress! And go to the beach!

Spencer: Wait, if we got married this weekend, we could JUST MAKE the Monday deadlines at the celeb weeklies to get a cover—on a week when the whole fucking country travels and sees our face at every airport Hudson News. Why did I not think of this sooner since my brain's sole task is to propel our fame?

Heidi: But how do we plan a wedding in three days? I have to call my mom!

Spencer: NO! Don't call her. Bitch will try to sell her own pictures, and I'll never get the private jet I so deserve.

Re-Blog: Yearning For Home Ec

I got at this point before in a post about Suze Orman, but The Daily Beast has a story today from college sophomore (not sure why that matters, but they hammer that point home) Zac Bissonnette that addresses the fact that, hello, high school kids need to be taught life skills:

"One of my biggest complaints about my high school education—and there were many—was the absence of a home economics class. I don’t mean home ec in the baking-and-ironing sense. I mean a class that teaches young people to responsibly handle their personal and family finances.

I went to a school that prided itself on its commitment to the value of a "classical education," and required every student to take two years of Latin. At the same time, the faculty was all too happy to send kids off to the lion's den of adulthood without any knowledge of credit cards, student loans, the stock market, or how to purchase a car."

Because Sometimes There's Nothing More Stressful Than Picking Out Placecards

An article in Sunday Styles this week hit upon a topic that I'd been pondering lately: Is there blowout wedding backlash? As the story puts it, elopements are are the rise because future misters and missuses 1) feel bad pouring so much money into an eight-hour affair right about now and 2) dread wedding planning has (d)evolved into this insanity-inducing affair heightened by books that tell you that—seven months before the sacred day—you should start picking out favors for your bachelorette party. RIGHT. Because that's what matters. Plus, there's the intimacy factor. Per the article:

"Elopement can be a more intimate and romantic experience than a traditional wedding, according to Lynn Beahan, an author, with Scott Shaw, of 'Let’s Elope' (Bantam, 2001), a compendium of elopement information. 'It’s you declaring your love to somebody else just in front of that one other person,' said Ms. Beahan, who eloped in Vermont in 2001. 'As a married couple you don’t spend the rest of your life making big decisions in front of an audience.'

Now, eloping seems as teeeensy bit extreme as pissing off the parents is a bit, er, undesirable. But I have noticed more City Hall weddings lately, and there's something old-fashiony and charming about that in my opinion. As I see it, the surge was started not just by Carrie and Big in the SATC (where she wore a tooootally retro dress...I digress) but by the short-lived CA gay marriage boom (see: Jonathan Adler and Simon Doonan). A lot of the couples that said vows had been together forevs and likely didn't feel the need to do a whole 300-person affair.

Because I Don't Always Want To Know The Ending

I loooove watching TV on DVD, but I hate the fact that you have to commit to, like, a gazillion episodes if the show was on network telly or a 95 hour-long, fast forward-free ones if the program was on HBO. Right now, I'm stoked on checking out The West Wing—of which I've never seen a single moment—but seven seasons? I do have a JOB (for now), you know. Thankfully, today Y advised me that, really, only the first three are worth watching. Approximately 80 hours of my life are thus saved. (Is using those hours to troll online shopping websites for really good sales better?? Prolly not so much.)

Can someone—anyone? Bueller?—make a website that compiles this information for me? Because the weight of my Netflix queue is too much to withstand, and I feel like I'm already such a terrible cultural consumer considering I didn't watch any teevee live from season 2 of Dawson's Creek to season 5 of SATC.

Anyway, I will offer my suggestions (in hopes that you'll gimme yours in return, duh). Sharing is caring, you guys.

The Wire: Seasons 1-4. You've heard it a milllllion times. The show is DA BOMB. So just watch, otay? BUT, the fourth should have been the last. I don't like when Michael Lee becomes a bad boy. It keeps me up at night.

Weeds: Season 1-2. When Nancy becomes an f-ing full-on drug lord? Count me out

Wonderfalls: All 13 episodes. Yup, it's a brilliant-but-canceled.

I'm Alan Partrige: Season 1. That's enough of Steve Coogan to give you quotes for daaaaays.

Arrested Development: Seasons 2-3. Yes, I know, funniest show, like, EVA, but it doesn't really get going until the 2nd year. The first few episodes can be a tough sell to someone who hasn't seen.

And now! A break for a gratuitous photo of Tristan Wilds (who played Michael Lee and is now on, barf, 90210). He has the best smile in the galaxy. But I can't find a pic where he shows it. HBO! Help!

Next up are The West Wing, Veronica Mars, My So-Called Life (because, let's be honest, I hardly remember), and Battlestar Galactica. And clearly I need advice.

Stuck. In. The. Head.

Share my pain.

An End To The "On The Street...."

The street style blogs are insanely overwhelming, and, to be honest, I don't need Mr. Sartorialist's commentary on what some chick is wearing or where she's standing. Thus, this aggregator site streetstyl.es is genius, pulling in the posts (photos only, thanks) from all the big real people fash sites and tons you've (or, I've) never heard of. THANK YOU.

And...Scene.

We all saw it coming, in this big, expensive movie we call life. Someone's writing a style book about Michelle Obama!!! Says Page Six:

"THE incoming first lady is getting her own fashion book. Avon has signed former Mademoiselle editor Mandi Norwood to pen a 'Michelle Obama Style Guide,' due out next spring. Avon vice president Carrie Feron said: 'Not since Jackie O have we had a first lady become a fashion icon. Michelle Obama will be one of history's most vibrant first ladies; she has a distinctive style that every American woman can aspire to, whether the consumer is a Target shopper or some one more likely to be found on Miracle Mile.'"

You guuuuuuys, doesn't she have to live in the ol' W.H. for two hot seconds first? Please? Why is this frustrating me?

In other fashion book news, I'm sweating the mere idea of the hulking Kate Moss Style book that was released earlier this month. It reeks of promise. And cigarettes.