Overheard In Bookstore

Dialogue overheard on Saturday, October 19, 2008. Guaranteed verbatim.

Sorority Girl: That book used to scare me when I was little.

Other Sorority Girl: Which one?

Sorority Girl: Goodnight Moon!

Future Ex-Husbands: Matt Prokop

This seems wrong in so many ways, but lately I have been a little bit obsessed, well not obsessed really,more like very intrigued with Matt Prokop. I've never seen him act, I've only seen pictures of him and a few little interview thingies on the internets. As I reported before, his big break is a secondary role in High School Frickin' Musical 3, possibly to be followed by a primary role in High School Frickin' Musical 4 (we don't even know for sure if that will happen). I seriously don't want to get sucked into the High School Frickin' Musical phenomena, but there's something about him that makes me go a little gooey inside. He's just ridiculously cute.

Look at this video of him doing a photo shoot for Popstar! Magazine. Listen to the surfer-boy lilt in his voice. Note how cherubic his face looks in repose. Then see how his smile turns him into a total goofball, which is totally endearing. Watch him turn the cute on on cue. This kid knows exactly what he's doing. He's 18 years old and the human equivalent of a plush toy. There's no way that I, or my fellow 12 year-old girls (of all ages)can resist.

He ain't no Alex Pettyfer, though.

I Promised Myself I Wouldn't Do This

I really thought that I could get through life without ever putting a picture of Zac Efron on my blog. I mean, he's the personification of the manufactured Disney star-bot, isn't he? All hype, cosmetic surgery and image management, right? But, damn, he looks so cute on the cover of the new issue of Entertainment Weekly. What the hell do I care how he got that way? Besides, I kind of adored him in Hairspray. So sue me.

Icons: Judy Garland

When this picture was taken in 1963, Judy Garland was riding high. She had gone from career purgatory in the late 1950s to an amazing resurgence which lead to her being widely considered the world's greatest living entertainer. She played sold-out concerts all over the globe, her Judy at Carnegie Hall album topped the record charts and won the Grammy for record of the year, she was nominated for an Oscar for her role in Judgement at Nuremberg and she had just signed a contract with CBS to host The Judy Garland Show. After that everything seemed to go wrong. Six years later she was gone.

Kitschy.

I have never watched Friday Night Lights, the NBC (and now DirectTV) show about a Texas high school football team. I've heard it's good. But I've never watched it. And so here's what I've been missing. Taylor Kitsch. If he's a high school student, I'm the Queen Dowager of Transylvania.

Thanks for the photos go to Cinmiester at Famous Male Forums.

Perfect Moments at the Movies

Casablanca (1942)

Captain Louis Renault: What in heaven's name brought you to Casablanca?

Rick: My health. I came to Casablanca for the waters.

Renault: The waters? What waters? We're in the desert.

Rick: I was misinformed.

Book of the Day

Those crazy kids and their internets! Apparently while I wasn't paying attention (because Project Runway was on) they started a "hot new web trend" called Sleeveface. And now it's a book! For those of you who were as unaware of this phenomena as I was, Sleeveface is a kind of game (where everyone's a winner!) which involves, "obscuring or augmenting any part of your body with an album jacket (aka sleeve)." For those of you who were born after 1985, an album jacket is... oh never mind.

Some of the Sleeveface photos are interesting because of the careful blend of the record sleeve and the Sleevefacer. Others are clever juxtapositions of the sleeves with unexpected surroundings. A lot of them are just people holding record covers over their faces and not being interesting or clever at all.

It's a cute little book. I don't know if I'd be willing to shell out fourteen bucks for it, though. Especially since most of the content is already available online for free.

Another Japanese Guy To Drool Over

Japan certainly produces some honeys, doesn't it? This is Eiji Wentz who celebrates his 23rd birthday today. He is an actor and a singer and another example of multi-culturalism gone right (his father is an American of German descent). The term "rice queen" is so offensive isn't it? I am not a rice queen. I just think Asian guys are hot.

Styles That Might Not Catch On

Cole Mohr is one of the world's highest paid models. I hope they paid him plenty to model this hairdo. He doesn't look too happy about it.

A Trip to the Mall

Yesterday I made a visit to my local mega-mall (The Death Star Mall at the butt end of the suburb to the west, not to be confused with The Mall of the Damned on the east side of town) to do a little shopping. Actually, my first plan was to see a movie, but then I didn't, which is another story altogether. The short version is that I didn't feel like spending seven bucks on anything that was showing so instead I had dinner at the all-you-dare-to-eat buffet and wandered around looking at a bunch of stuff I was never going to buy. In the end I stopped at Le Target and picked up some toothpaste and a bag of Storck Chocolate Riesen and went home.

Even though I'm not a big fan of mall culture, I do sometimes enjoy the advertising posters adorning the windows of some of the clothing establishments. Like most people, I have a love/hate relationship with consumerism. There were a couple of things I enjoyed looking at and one I just want to comment on.

1) The Gap. I think of The Gap as the quintessential 1990s clothing store. The last time I stepped foot in one was while Christmas shopping about four years ago. I didn't buy anything. One of the faces in The Gap's current campaign is actor Hugh Dancy, star of Ella Enchanted, The Jane Austen Book Club, and several of my most erotic dreams. He was also the face of Burberry for several years. I cannot convey how pleasing it is to walk by a shop with this poster, life-sized, in its window
.

2) The Hollister Company has been one of the biggest successes in retail of the last few years. It has recently surpassed Abercrombie & Fitch as the prefered brand of the teen set. ( I, personally, wouldn't be caught dead.) Don't feel too sorry for Abercrombie though. Hollister is Abercrombie. Just as The Gap has the budget-minded Old Navy, Abercromie has Hollister. Call me a fuddy-duddy, but I hate their clothes, most of which have the company name silkscreened in huge letters across the front, effectively turning the wearer into a walking billboard. No thanks. However, I do like the new guy who has replaced Christopher Gloc as the poster boy at the entrance to the Hollister stores and website. If any of you know this cutie's name, please share.

Now, let's talk about 3) Abercrombie & Fitch, shall we? I have only bought one item of clothing at an Abercrombie store in my life, a shirt with a sixty per cent markdown. Ask me how many times I've shelled out good money for their catalogues. " A lot", will be my answer. That's because (and I'm not proud of this) I can't resist the Abercrombie aesthetic. I've read a lot of stuff about how Abercrombie is bad for the gays, or at least exploits them. I somewhat agree with that, at least on an intellectual level. But I can't help it. I love those half nekkid jock boys, those perfect young demigods. Yes, I know; they do look like "joy through health" poster boys from Nazi Germany. I get it. But damn, they're hot. Does this make be a bad person? Probably.

So, I don't really shop at the loud, throbbing, overly-perfumed A&F stores, but I just can't walk by them without stopping to gaze upon the larger than life posters of the most gorgeous semi-naked men imaginable. Therefore, it is with some sadness that I strolled past the A&F store yesterday only to see this:

It seems as if A&F has taken the objectification of of young men to a whole new level. No face, not even a head, no hair...anywhere. I'm sure that if those jeans slipped down any further there would be no genitalia. Speaking of those jeans, what product are they selling here? Certainly not the jeans that we can barely see. What is the point of this? It is a nice torso, or at least it seems to be, but how would a person even know? He's so airbrushed that he could look like just about anything. Are they, perhaps, making a conscious decision to make him look like a piece of classical sculpture? Whatever they are thinking, I wish they'd think again.

One Glorious Face

Once it a great while a person happens upon something so beautiful that he has to stop everything just to contemplate it and be thankful that such splendid perfection can exist in this world. I don't know a single thing about this boy except that his face is one of those things.

Model of the Moment

This little cupcake joins the likes of Madonna and Cher by adopting a single moniker. He goes by the name of Barnaby. Yes, he's British.

Dancing Darlings

Is it sick and wrong that I'm wild about Dancing With The Stars? Sometimes I think there are things It would behoove me to keep to myself and this is one of them. Of course there are often "stars" I want to see (Cody Linley! Apolo Ohno!) but what keeps me coming back consistently are the professional dancers. Not only are they yummy in the purely superficial sense, but there is something about a guy that who can move like that. Just the thought of it makes me a bit dizzy.

Sadly, cutie-pie Mark Ballas got the boot last night. Poor guy; he was saddled with dead-eyed dead weight Kim Kardashian. I love you Mark, but there was just no way I was gonna vote for her.

R.I.P. Paul Newman (1925-2008)

One of the last Hollywood Legends, Paul Newman wasn't content just to be a top-tier movie star (back when being a movie star really meant something) and one of the most desirable human beings on the planet. He wanted to make the world a better place, too, and he put his money where his mouth is. He will be missed.

If you have a minute, read this little obituary over at Slate.com, but be sure to have a tissue at hand.

Only Gay in the Village?

I haven't seen it yet, but I don't really know what to think about Little Britain USA which premieres on HBO tomorrow night. Of course I know what I think about the original Little Britain, which has been rerun ad infinitum on BBC America. I think it is a pretty good, occasionally very funny sketch show which is based squarely in the comedy of the grotesque and relies a bit too heavily on recurring characters and constantly repeated catch phrases. It always makes me laugh, but I never go out of my way to watch it. It is very British, which is part of its charm, and here is where the whole concept of Little Britain USA kind of falls apart for me. The very title is an oxymoron. I can't see how will it work to take these oh-so-British archetypes and drop them into an American milieu. Or is that even what they plan to do? We shall see.

Random Shirtless (and Pantsless) Guy of the Day

Go! Go! Faerie - I'd love to know what that's all about.

Apologies to my readers in the UK who may have expected something (ahem) else. As you may or may not know, "pants" in the USA is synonymous with "trousers", whereas "pants" in the UK are underwear.

Buck Does Clay

If you've spent much time at The YouTubes you probably already know who Michael Buckley is and have watched his knee-slappingly  funny What The Buck Show. If you have managed to miss it, I suggest you remedy that right now.  I know that I said that I didn't have anything to add about Clay Aiken coming out, and I don't, but Michael Buckley does, and as usual he's right on the money.

Perfect Moments at the Movies #3

Valley of the Dolls (1967)

Helen Lawson: The only hit that comes out of a Helen Lawson show is Helen Lawson, and that's ME, baby, remember?

Random Shirtless Guy of the Day

Shocked! Shocked!

Who ever could have guessed that Clay Aiken of all people is gay?  I'm not going to say anything more about it, but here's a little video that I think says it all.

Visit Jeffrey and Cole at the YouTubes. You will not regret it.