Monday, March 21, 2011

Balance Shmalance part deux

Or maybe the title could be, "This is why all of those celebrity, and fashion magazines can go suck it for perpetuating the myth that you can have it all."

I know that Gwyneth bashing can seem as if I have sour mommy grapes. We are not supposed to want to spew venom at blond, pretty, Hollywood royalty. She likes to tell us how busy she is ,just like us, feeding her children dinner and baking cupcakes for school, and fitting in a girls night out. However, her day is also spent dashing out the door to her clothes fitting with private stylists and having a car service. I just find GOOP and Gwyneth and everything about their lifestyle to be condescending.

These are some wealthy, privileged women who are giving tips and quirky slice-of-life moments that are meant to seem as if they live these lives just like the rest of us. They write about their hectic days filled with meetings with Adidas and Bono and they still manage to eat a full rounded breakfast. Trainers and acupuncture at your home saves time! Weekly hair blow outs are a lifesaver!

Maybe if these celebri-mommies would just admit - "Yes I have mountains of money and access to car services, nannies and house cleaners. I am nothing like the legions of you who read about my life. You, lowly people out there clean your own toilets. Boy, I am sure lucky I don't have too! Well, gotta go, busy, busy, time to eat out again!"

At least Stella McCartney admitted that she has a nanny.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Nice and Easy


I am a child of the 70’s. I am drawn to all things having to do with The Love Boat, Seals and Croft style soft rock am radio, and Free to Be You and Me. I love it for the nostalgia of my childhood, proud that I experienced a time when my friends and I rode in the way back with the window open of my dad’s faux wood paneled station wagon. We barreled down the highway, not strapped into anything, face whipped by the wind, mouths stained red from guzzling Hawaiian Punch, and my parents smoking cigarettes in the front seats. There was no doubt in our minds that what we were doing was so perfectly right.

Today, I strap my girls in tight with their seat belts, and they automatically snap on their bike helmets and I carefully monitor what they watch on the television, and I wouldn’t dream of doing it any other way. However, I experience a strange satisfaction knowing I survived without bike helmets, car seats and heavy doses of Fantasy Island.

I can get lost for hours looking at pictures from that time, caught in a swirl of shiny jumpsuits exiting studio 54, the rock and roll denim, and of course, the large amounts of hair. Whether it was Farrah Fawsett’s golden mane or Grizzly Adams, there were grand, copious amounts of hair. Jennifer Aniston may have had an iconic haircut with The Rachel in the ‘90’s but it does not nearly have the same impact as the gorgeous pride of Angela Davis’ afro. People just seemed hairier in the 1970’s. It was a time when long hair represented power, rebellion and the waxing industry was a far off, distant dream.