Tori, Clay, and Reality TV (AKA: These Are A Few of My Favorite Things!)

Before I get going on my list of my current favorite pop culture "vices," I wanted to first remind you that yesterday was October 2.

To the uninitiated, October 2nd was the first Friday of the month which means it was girl's night out!!! Thanks to Sue and Becky for a great time. We really shook up the concept of the whole dinner, drinks, and a movie thing by going upscale and doing it up right at a few fancier establishments. No, this was not your typical dinner at Friday's and catching a movie with all the teenagers at the local strip mall. Nope, this was dinner at the CBS Scene Restaurant (the only place I know of that you can watch The Brady Bunch at your table), and a movie at the Showcase Cinema de Lux! For those of you not familar with the whole Cinema de Lux concept, let me just say that you are missing out on what could possibly be the best invention since they put wings on maxi's!

You see the Cinema de Lux concept that they've added to some of the Showcase Cinemas more higher-end locations, is a revelation and a retreat, especially for those of us suffering from the "Disney, Pixar, 3D, wigglefest, multiple bathroom trips, and kid infested noon time showing extravaganza" we call our typical movie viewing experience.

Yes, viewing a movie in the "Lux Level" is most like moving from coach to first class! Or in some cases like moving from the baggage compartment to First Class. First off it is a 21 and older experience ... already worth its cost of admission right there! But before you even hit the inside of theater itself, you are escorted behind the velvet rope and up a set of stairs to the VIP lounge area. Feeling like Britney or Lindsay sipping martini's at ultra-sheik tables with linen napkins and fresh flowers, while looking out and down on the commoners below, you instantly look and feel more important. You realize very quickly that this isn't going to be your usual movie going experience. I knew this going in cause it wasn't my first time on the Lux Level, but I was bringing friends who had only heard the stories. It was like taking an expidition to the North Pole to see that Santa really did exist!

The "Lux" continues when our own personal maitre'd escorts us, drinks in hand, from the lounge into the theater to our seats. These aren't your typical movie theater seats either ... these are like Donald Trump private screening room movie theater seats. Once again situated above the the general admission area below, these giant leather recliners are so big and comfy, that the only thing missing was someone giving me a mani/pedi as the previews played.

Spa treatments not withstanding, you still get the little adjustable table that swings in front of you and a full menu selection of sandwiches, pizzas, cocktails, desserts and of course typical concession fare. Just one press of the service button located on your arm rest, and a nice waiter or waitress will come and take your order. You can do this all movie long and close out your bill at the end of the movie. Pretty much like club sections at sporting events, but loooong overdue at the movie theater. Thank you to Showcase Cinemas for finally realizing that some of us will actually pay more to sit comfortably with adults and enjoy a nice meal and drinks with our movie!

Anyway, our girl's night out wasn't quite a scene from The Hangover (if you don't count the random roaming chicken) but it was a fabulous time with great friends, good food and drink and a bit of VIP treatment. And as usual, it was very much needed! Can't wait for November 6th!

Now on to my five pop culture vices and why I'm not afraid to admit to them ....

(in no particular order, because vices are vices no matter the context, so each one always seems like the most important one while you are indulging in it)

Tori Spelling- Huh you say? Tori Spelling is one of your vices? Yep, I admit it ... although I might not have been chanting "Let Donna Martin Graduate" back in the Beverly Hills 90210 days (I was a Kelly gal), I have since developed a little bit of a girl crush on Tori and her whole family. It started when I first watched her show Tori and Dean: Inn Love. I followed their move out of LA and into proprietorship of their very own B&B. I was impressed with Tori's down to earth nature, her work ethic, her desire to distance herself from the tabloid image of a spoiled daddy's girl, and her wacky sense of humor which I found oddly familiar to my own. I related to her very real and normal relationship with her husband, her adjustment to pregnancy, and I laughed along with she and Dean's escapades as they attempted in vain to start a new life in the boonies.

I was hooked. I have since watched every episode of the Tori and Dean franchise and as they returned to LA and settled down into a new house every year it seems. I have read both her books (both are HIGHLY entertaining and great easy reads), and I even follow their happenings on Twitter. Heck, if I win Powerball, I might even be able to afford some of the clothes in her adorable new children's clothing line. Believe it or not, our sons even look a lot alike. So much so that my hubby and I started calling our son "monkey" after the nickname Tori and Dean gave their son Liam. They also gave birth to their daughter Stella on my son Brody's due date and the two are only a week apart in age. Now I know this all may sound kinda stalker-crazy on my part, but trust me ... it's all very innocent. I just relate to her and her family (but sadly not her houses or her bank account), and they are by far my favorite TV family and I am not ashamed to admit it. I have laughed and cried with Tori for many years now both on TV and in print. I feel like I've really gotten to know her and Dean, their kids, and their extended family of friends and "guncles." In fact, let me at that Candy Spelling .... I need to give that woman a biotch-slap! Seriously though .... Tori, you rock girlfriend, and if you are ever in New England, please swing by and we can get the monkey's together, and plan a kick ass party ... as long as you foot the bill of course!

Reality TV - Oh Lawdy! Where do I start here? Seriously I have such and addiction to reality TV that I could literally write 5 blogs about this topic alone. American Idol, So You Think You Can Dance, Dancing With The Stars, Tori and Dean, Top Chef, America's Next Top Model, Project Runway, The Biggest Loser, Ghost Hunters and The Amazing Race are just a few of the shows I've had on my DVR just this year. But the list of Reality TV shows I've watched at one time or another goes waaaaay back to the first season of MTV's The Real World (or as I like to call it ... the year that the music video died). Heck, I may be the the only person you know who has watched every season of Solitary. Call me sad and pathetic, but other than my brother who is an actor and who's livelihood depends on being cast in scripted tv shows, no one else has any right to judge me.

My love of Reality TV does not make me shallow or stupid. Rather I like to see it more as being "well rounded." I love a good drama or comedy, I love to read books and see snobby independent movies. I graduated college Magna Cum-Laude for crying out loud! No, my love of Reality TV has nothing to do with my education level, but more about my desire to escape into the craziness of someone else's life for a change. Sometimes after a long day playing teacher, mediator, chauffeur, clown, and disciplinarian to three kids, all I want to do is sit on the couch and see if some crazy designer can really make a dress out of dust-bunnies or a wanna-be Top Chef can make a Devil Dog Ceviche with a balsamic reduction. Yeah its not Masterpiece Theater, but frankly I always thought Masterpiece Theater was as boring as hell!

Facebook- The fact that between every paragraph I write here on my blog I am refreshing my Facebook page, might just be an indication that I am an addict. I reluctantly stuck my toe into the Facebook universe just under a year ago. 240 friends and many high scores of Bejeweled Blitz later, I am officially in with both feet and the water is rising fast.

Unlike MySpace, and the free for all of teenie boppers and weirdos trying to collect friends like squirrels stashing nuts for the winter, Facebook I found was a bit more "adult." More importantly, it was more private and controllable. At first I just enjoyed finding and reconnecting with many past friends, many of whom I thought would be relegated forever to my memory and old photo albums. As time passed and I got into the rhythm of reading and posting on the News Feed everyday, I realized how important it is for me to start every day checking in to find out who's kid has a fever, which friend is getting a haircut, or how many of them have already gotten in their work-out. Yes, I am now a slave to Status Updates! And the more the merrier I say... Post away! Once I got the Facebook App on my iPhone (more on that to come), the mobility set me free! I'm not ashamed to say that I've checked those status updates from the toilet on more than one occasion. Go ahead ...admit it ... I'm not the only one ... I know those of you with Blackberries and iPhones have done it too!

Now some of you may be Twitter fantatics, and that's fine. I like Twitter too. But I find Twitter a bit more impersonal and limiting. Come on .... 140 characters???? Really, ME????? Other than discovering real-time breaking news with the trending topics, and the pseudo-stalking of certain celebrities by following their "tweets" (Hi Tori!!!), Twitter is pretty much only good for people trying to advertise their businesses or confuse us amateurs with a bunch of #@#@## symbols that look like gooblygunk. Nah, give me a handful of my closest friends, and a couple hundred more of my former classmates, ex boyfriends, mild acquaintances, and people I might have never met in person, and tell me what they are up to a few times a day. THAT my friend is a recipe for addiction! (And I haven't even mentioned all the stupid games and quizzes)

Clay Aiken- Well this current vice goes all the way back to 2003, and like Tori Spelling, was born out of the Reality TV vice. When I was introduced to one Clay Aiken during the second season of American Idol, little did I know that 6 1/2 years later I would still be as addicted! Now step off people and don't be a hater! Clay Aiken quite simply has the best male voice in popular music and puts on one heck of an entertaining concert. I should know, I've seen him in concert more than 30 times, and in eight different states. More simply put, I am one of those crazy Claymates ... and I don't even meet any one of the stereotypes! (well, okay ... I do own a cat ....)

Since the moment the title was stolen from him in 2003, through all the media attention, the lies that were told about him, and the revelations he eventually shared, one thing has remained ... his voice! I'm addicted, and listening to Clay's music will be a vice I shall happily enjoy for the rest of my life, even if he never makes another album. Now all my former radio peeps, and music snobs can take your judgements and stuff em! Moonkitty doesn't care what you think. Yes I like all types of music, from Ministry to Miley Cyrus and everything else in between. It just so happens that number one ahead of them all is my love for Clay Aiken. Now deal with it!

iPhone- I remember when my dear hubby got me my first iPod for Mother's Day back in 2005. I was excited, but not sure I really needed this portable little gadget that simply put music in a digital form. I liked my Sports Talk radio and my few Clay Aiken CD's and that was pretty much all I was listening to at the time. Silly girl! Within days I was hooked. I had playlists, and mixes and loved playing the iPod in the car. I could barely contemplate life before the iPod, and promptly sold off every CD I owned! Flash Forward 2 years when hubby upgraded me to the iPhone, and my life was basically changed forever.

Even back in 2007 the iPhone was pretty amazing. Phone, Text, iPod, Internet, Email, Camera, and a handful of Apple created applications that were always fun to play with. Even with these functions alone, my life was immediately streamlined into technology nirvana. But now add the upgrades and the thousands and thousands of third party applications available at a touch (including Facebook), and I've basically become a slave to my iPhone ... but I have no complaints!

Does anyone else just marvel at the miracle that is the iPhone? Seriously, I swear the thing is magic, dropped accidently onto our planet by some careless fly-by aliens. I mean isn't it pure Science Fiction here? Wasn't it just like 12 years ago that our cell phones were as big as toasters with antennas a foot long??? Now my cell phone can purchase Gouchos from the Gap with a few touches! Seriously, what would I do every morning if I couldn't lay in bed drinking my tea while checking Facebook, Twitter, the 10 day weather forecast, my emails, and buying movie tickets? I mean this is our life now, and I wouldn't want it any other way. Well, I am kinda glad this technology wasn't around when I was a kid though. I can't imagine getting an ounce of work done in high school or college if this technology was introduced to me then. I mean we actually had to pass handwritten notes, knock on each other's doors or call from our see-through Swatch phones with the 8 inch curly cord if we wanted to make plans with each other. You really had to like someone to take the effort it took back then to go out with them.

Yeah, I'm actually pretty psyched that the technology held off long enough for me to grow up and define my identity and gather my self worth before the era of instant impersonal communication came about. But I am sure glad it did come about. Now if I could only keep it away from my kids until they are at least 25 years old.

.... Hmmmm thinking about lobbying Congress to pass a law here ....

Anyway, viva la iPhone!


So there you have it. A few of my favorite pop culture vices. I know just the word "vice" implies a bad thing, and without moderation I know I would be fresh for the loony bin. But when stricken with the right balance ... all the gadgets, celebrities, TV shows, and social networking web sites we find ourselves drawn to over and over again in today's pop culture obsessed society can yield beneficial results. Stress relief and friendship are just a couple of the biggest benefits that immediately come to my mind. Hey its better than downing a bottle of Pinot a day or hiring hookers right???

Seriously, I listed my pop culture vices as way to be free and proud, and to send a message to all of those who proudly proclaim to be "above the fray" and so much better than all these base and lowest common denominator things that they so snootily look down upon. Well I say ... too bad for you. While you are out there being sooooooo refined and worldy, you are missing out on a damn good Cha-Cha from Maks and a D-list celebrity!!!!

MEOW!




Post Script: There will not be a blog for a few weeks as I prepare for our family vacation. We leave in a week and will be gone for a week. I need the time leading up to our trip to prepare and pack, and although my iPhone makes it possible, I will not be blogging from the beach. I'll give y'all a nice long recap blog though when we return ... that is if I'm still functioning!


Post Post Script: I was kidding about the chicken.