I watched an episode of Property Virgins on HGTV tonight, and I can honestly say this was the first time I have watched it or House Hunters and not wanted to kick the buyer in the junk by the end of the episode. It was some librarian in Portland named Heather, and she was a decent person, found a great foreclosed house that needed some work but was a real find, saw the beauty in some of the existing structure, was really excited, not demanding, and just seemed like an all around good person. And she was nice to her friends.
There was no mention of hardwood floors, two sinks in the latrine, or stainless steel appliances. Her priorities made sense, too- good structure, yard to garden, etc. Yet she was happy!
For those of you who wanted a thread for something other than elections or sports or pets or me being cranky (99.7% of the blog).
Nikolita
Awesome. I stopped watching those shows (House Hunters and Property Virgins) for those very reasons. Too many spoiled wanna-be home owners bitching about carpet and non-stainless steel appliances.
Between the two, I much prefer Property Virgins though. Sandra is amazing.
lamh32
Oooh,
I love Property Virgins. Sandra ain’t no joke. She gives the new homebuyers really good and sound advice.
When watching House Hunters and Property Virgins and esp HH: International, I’m just always amazed at how young some of these buyers are, and by how much they are willing to pay and how much money they are actually approved for buying the home.
Just Some Fuckhead
How do we know, in fact, that Heather was a virgin?
lamh32
Not HGTV related, but still, I just had to share this.
This friend of mine is a big Lady Gaga fan. He was telling me about Gaga’s interview with Larry King, and he told me about her new video for her new single “Alejandro”. He said she made this video particularly as an homage to her gay fans. My come back of course was aren’t all her videos, nee her entire career, an homage to her gay fans? Still, I told him, I’d watch the video when I had a chance.
Well I watched it, and I just gotta tell you like I told him, I don’t know how she did it, but damn if the video for “Alejandro” isn’t the gayest video in the history of gaydom. My friend laughed, but agreed, the video is obviously an homage to Madonna and her “blonde ambition” phase, but still, compared to Alejandro, “Vogue” is damn near butch by comparison.
Check it out:
Lady Gaga – Alejandro
BTW, I’m still not quite sure what the hell the song itself is about anyway, and the video sure don’t help none.
Violet
@lamh32:
Yeah, are these shows really old or something? It seems crazy how much money people as young as the ones on these shows are allowed to borrow. Is the mortgage loan market really that free with money? Or do these people make way more money than one would think?
The last show of that type I saw was several months ago at the gym. They let a woman buy a $500,000 house with zero money down. My jaw actually dropped. Does that sort of thing still happen?
tim
Sandra rocks. Love it when she bitch slaps stupid house hunters into shape.
Sandra also knows how to work those massive breasts for ratings.
Also, too…I get annoyed with the two sink, stainless idiots, but then I remind myself that MOST Americans are stupid and simply repeat what has been drilled into them by the culture (and by HGTV and DIY and Fox News). They have absorbed by osmosis the idea that only losers have one bathroom sink, white appliances, or carpet rather than hardwood, so that’s what they mention.
It’s ok…they’re just stupid, and mentioning the above items makes them feel like they know things.
Comrade Mary
If you want another tough Canuck woman giving good advice, check out Gail Vaz-Oxlade on Til Debt Do Us Part. Her blog’s pretty good, too.
lamh32
@Violet:
Yeah, one of the episodes I watched was one where this couple wanted to buy a home BEFORE they got married? They were living in the husband’s parent’s basement or something, and I’m not even sure if the husband worked. The wife I’m pretty sure didn’t. They were approved for a home in the 200,000 to 300,000 range?
The more realistice ep of Property Virgins was one with this couple where the woman was a newly graduated Lawyer working for a firm. The day before they were gonna put in an offer for a home they liked, the woman was laid off, so the home buying had to be scrapped.
Biscuits
There was a “cranky” post? I missed it. Dang! Thoes are me favorites!
JGabriel
John Cole @ Top:
John, you forgot gardening and food.
.
tkogrumpy
Speaking for myself, I come here for the cranky.
Jibeaux
The latrine?! Is John ever going to get a lady friend?
flipturn
That’s librarians for you! Practical, nice, and able to recognize potential. Good folks!
mnpundit
I watch those shows sometimes. What’s wrong with two sinks in the bathroom? It is pretty handy. Two sinks in the kitchen however is more handy.
New Yorker
Maybe there’s hope for this country yet. I always saw things like 3-car garage McMansions and Hummers and $500 pairs of shoes as signs of illness, not health, in American society. Our basic needs were so fulfilled that we just needed more, more, MORE until we were living well beyond our means as a society.
I’m hoping that this economic disaster will have at least one benefit in that people my age and younger will understand the need to live within our means.
tkogrumpy
I love librarians, in fact I’ve married two of them so far.
madmommy
I love how Sandra brings these yahoos down to earth. Here’s a news flash for first-time buyers: this is not going to be the house you retire in. It is your starter home, you can upgrade it as you can afford it, but it will not be what you see in House Beautiful. Stainless appliances are overrated. They show fingerprints like crazy. This might not be a problem now, but chances are you’re gonna have kids soon and they are notorious for leaving grubby pawprints on everything. A jetted garden tub in the master bath looks awesome on the house tour. Until you buy the house and have to clean the damn thing. Unless you plan to allot half a day for tub cleaning every week, skip it. If I could afford it, I’d rip out the jetted garden tub in my bathroom and install a bigger shower and a linen closet. Storage trumps a fancy tub you actually use a couple times a year. Trust me.
JGabriel
@tkogrumpy:
Me too. And the politics. Surprisingly, there’s a lot of overlap.
.
Paddy
The ones I hate are the HH Int’l where the Ugly Americans go over to where ever and drag their need for bullshit with them. If I’m living in Europe, I want it to be as different from the U.S. as possible.
Fraud Guy
I’m going to bet you don’t watch Selling New York.
arguingwithsignposts
@lamh32:
I am coming around to the idea of her as the female Marilyn Manson.
ETA: Bjork needs to step up her game. The swan suit at the grammys just ain’t cuttin’ it anymore.
MikeJ
@tkogrumpy:Did you return the first one or do they not have a limit on how many you can take out at a time?
beltane
@madmommy: We ripped out the jetted tub that came with the house and replaced it with a normal tub. It was literally impossible to get that thing clean and the sound of the motor was not conducive to a relaxing bath.
MikeJ
@arguingwithsignposts: Once you’ve seen GG Allin in a tiny club other people trying for shock are all just funny.
JoyceH
@Fraud Guy:
That show fascinates me for some reason. I can’t look away.
tkogrumpy
I don’t watch a lot of T.V., but I assume a property virgin is a first time home buyer. Amirite?
madmommy
@beltane:
We’ve got a tiny stand-up shower next to the giant tub. I’d love to rip them both out, do a bigger shower with some storage. There’s a regular tub in the second bath, I’d rather have the bigger shower and some extra storage.
The kids do love to put some bubble juice in that giant tub and turn the jets on, though!
Corner Stone
@MikeJ: Dammit but I hate it when I get whupped like this.
Kyle
Did she have granite countertops? Then stand by for a rightard hate-fest and Michelle Malkin peeking in her windows.
Corner Stone
I love watching this show and seeing a couple of 25 year olds trying to find a house they like for under $400,000. She usually does something normal and makes under $50K and he’s usually like a computer programmer or something earning $80K.
And they’re looking for a $400K fucking mortgage!
It always boggles the shit outta me.
tkogrumpy
@MikeJ: I don’t know if “they” have a limit, but I am serially monogamous.
beltane
Sorry to intrude on everyone’s home decorating discussion but the AP just called the Arkansas race for Blanche Lincoln.
jl
Sounds like Cole has a soft spot for librarians (still waters run wild down deep, you know. Librarians can surprise you).
I am so behind the times, I have no idea how even find where to watch these shows. They are on satellite cable netflix lazer optic custom teevee, or something like that. I don’t even know where to find the listings.
I mostly watch teevee that comes over the public airwaves, and that is so… so old fashioned, I am ashamed, but too unTVmotivated to do anything about it.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I don’t like stainless steel appliances, and I don’t quite understand the hoo-ha about granite countertops, either
@beltane: Fuck. I don’t think Halter is the bee’s knees, and from every poll I’ve read, this race a long, long, longshot for the Dem in the general, but all we’re gonna hear about now is the triumph of the center, a warning for Dems not to go too far, et cetera et cetera.
And fuck Bill Clinton.
drew42
Ugh, just turned off Jon Stewart again. I’ve fucking had it with him. I’m sure there are legitimate reasons to criticize Obama for his handling the oil spill. But Stewart has gone full douchebag this past week.
A few days ago (Thursday?) he spent a whole segment juxtaposing Obama making “we’re doing all we can” statements with shots of Obama doing other unrelated presidential stuff, and then ranting and screaming (literally, screaming — screaming!) because Obama isn’t spending every single second of his time dealing with the spill.
You know Jon, Obama is a President. He’s got other things he needs to do. He can’t spend all his time standing on the beach, angrily staring at the Gulf.
Tonight, Stewart flat-out blamed Obama for corruption in the MMS, even though said corruption is 100% the fault of the Bush administration.
Allison W.
I really hate it when the home buyers complain about the paint color or the wallpaper or the carpet as if its a deal breaker. I sometimes shout at the tv “just change it later, duh!”
MikeJ
With 7.5% in, Oily Taint is losing big. Maybe she’ll turn it around:
Damon Dunn 223,544 74.0%
Orly Taitz 78,574 26.0%
Mike Kay
aahahhahhahahahahhahahahhahaha
Jane Hamsher is the BIGGEST hillary Clinton PUMA alive and her candidate, Bill Halter, just lost in large part because of Hillary’s husband.
Heh!
Allison W.
@drew42:
What was the audience reaction?
I only watched the part where he showed Obama’s interview on the Today show and then mimicked him using bush’s voice.
PurpleGirl
I stopped watching HGTV a few years ago because I just couldn’t stand the spoiled buyers-to-be and their inflated ideas of what they just had to have. The make-over shows also scraped nerves like chalk on a chalk board. It was easier to stop watching than to keep yelling at the tv.
4jkb4ia
Where is the thread where I can give John a hard time about Strasburg?
West of the Cascades
Nice shoutout to Portland. Most people in town here generally demonstrate the common sense this woman apparently had (didn’t watch it myself).
Comrade Kevin
Speaking of TV channels, have any of you watched any of the programs on the new “Cooking Channel”, AKA Food Network 2? It mostly looks like recycled stuff from Food Network Canada, but I haven’t actually checked it out yet.
tkogrumpy
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: They are hip. Every multi-million dollar house I worked on between 1988 and 2003, except one, had granite countertops. The exception? 2″x24″ solid Honduras mahogany.
Jason Bylinowski
Yeah, we just got cable again for the first time in seven years, so my wife has been wearing out those home shows. Of course, we also just bought our first house so it seems particularly pointless to me at this stage of things, but whatever. Anyway, I am glad to see that I’m not the only person who is fed up with these people they get for these shows. Everyone is either up-scale or pretending to be upscale, and I don’t know which I hate worse. Actually, yeah I do, its the pretenders I can’t stand.
We wanted a double sink too, granted, but we were willing to deal with it. We ended up buying a neat 50-year-old house with all the original fittings so a double sink is pretty much not happening, but you know what? We bought a kick-ass house with a single sink, and we can change it later if we wanna, they aren’t even really all that expensive if you are willing to do the installation yourself. And I’m fast finding out that none of this shit is rocket science.
Let’s not get into the stainless steel appliances. My opinion on it is, if it ain’t broke, I’m not going to throw it out because to do so would be mighty wasteful, so we’ll just use our regular boring white appliances until such time as they decide to die, and if the commercial/industrial style is still in vogue by then, we’ll probably avoid it anyway because as we know, if you shop with no regard for trivial things like style, you open yourself up for a great deal on some quality, functional stuff.
Function over form, oo-rah.
jl
@Jason Bylinowski: That rant sounded unAmerican to me. What next ‘Waste not want not’? What kind of real American ever said that kind of thing? Get thee behind me, Satan.
Mark S.
Jesus, the stupidest former governor of Alaska in Alaska history has her ghostwriter pen the stupidest Facebook entry in Facebook history:
Sarah, you weren’t even mayor of Wasilla during the spill. You took credit in your book for the Supreme Court reducing the damages award against Exxon by several billion dollars. You are the stupidest bitch in the world.
You couldn’t have been to ill when you were telling those execs to “Drill, baby, drill!”
Cathie from Canada
Yes, we also have trouble understanding how people can afford these houses.
And the whining! Ohhh, the wallpaper! Ohhh, the rugs! Oh, only two bathrooms! Ohh, the bedroom is too small, it doesn’t have french doors into the backyard!
We just about stopped watching.
There are two worth watching — these are on DIY network in Canada
Yard Crashers — a landscaper grabs people while they’re shopping in a hardware store, invites himself back to their house, and then brings in a crew to redo their backyard in two days.
Desperate Landscapes — a contractor/landscaper gets called in by the neighbours to fix up the worst place on the block
jl
Omigod, a new crisis on the horizon. With global warming and all, they will be surfing up to your house soon, you complacent BJ liberals. Bad for Democrats, and sure wedge issue for the Tbaggers in the fall. I wait for the doom pronounced by Rove on how to use this failure of Obama.
Australian study finds crocodiles surf the seas
By ROD McGUIRK, AP, June 8 2010
CANBERRA, Australia – Crocodiles can surf ocean currents to take long leisurely journeys across open seas in the South Pacific, a researcher said on Wednesday.
news.yahoo.com/s/ap/as_australia_surfing_crocodiles
kay
@Mark S.:
Hah! Figures. She’s truly pathological. Get the lie out quick!
Palin’s lackeys must have started reading newspapers:
“A series of internal investigations over the past decade warned senior BP managers that the company repeatedly disregarded safety and environmental rules and risked a serious accident if it did not change its ways.
The confidential inquiries, which have not previously been made public, focused on a rash of problems at BP’s Alaska oil-drilling unit that undermined the company’s publicly proclaimed commitment to safe operations. They described instances in which management flouted safety by neglecting aging equipment, pressured or harassed employees not to report problems, and cut short or delayed inspections in order to reduce production costs. Executives were not held accountable for the failures, and some were promoted despite them.
Consider that Tweet preemptive. Wonder who was supposed to be regulating BP in Alaska?
grimc
Don’t think it’s common knowledge, but Oregon has no sales tax. It’s offset by higher property taxes. Awesome for renters. Probably a break-even for people who buy houses and install stainless-steel appliances.
Athenae
I used to watch It Takes a Thief, about these guys that break into people’s homes and then give them security makeovers, but had to stop because every fucking episode these dumbasses who got robbed would go on and on and on about how they never, ever thought anything bad could happen in their “nice” neighborhood. Crime is for other people, you know, the less virtuous who deserve such things.
Lately the only reality I’ve been watching is Top Chef Masters, which I love even though all the asskicking female chefs got kicked out early. Survivor utterly and irredeemably jumped the shark for me two seasons ago, and most of those Housewife/Sports Parents shows on Bravo/TLC make my brain want to empty both barrels into itself.
A.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@jl: Damn, no pictures. I also wanted video of the escaped elephant swimming in Lake Zurich.
tammanycall
@mnpundit:
Two bathroom sinks will do wonders for domestic harmony. And I also prefer hardwood floors because they’re easier to wash and they don’t hold onto smells like some wall to wall carpets do.
FlipYrWhig
@Mark S.:
Considering that Todd Palin WORKED FOR FUCKING BP, I have to assume that “scratch each others’ backs” is something she does after making “the beast with two backs.”
And, yes, Jon Stewart wasn’t clear at all that the worst of the MMS stuff was under Bush. The episode bugged me a bit, but I’m a raving Obot.
Little Boots
It’s turning into the Year of the Woman, in the worst possible sense of the term.
FlipYrWhig
Also, my HGTV-viewing pastime (it’s a pretty intense habit of mine) is to wait for home-buying couples that seem genuinely to like one another. It’s surprisingly rare. They mostly seem to carp and snip at each other and be intent on finding ways to create zones of stark separation.
Jager
@lamh32:
I watched it too, Gaga is just about as naked as she can get and still get played on MTV…note the “cameltoe” she is sporting! Dumb ass song and a dumbass video, course I’m old and straight so I wouldn’t be in the target audience, would I?
Nellcote
I like the way HGTV has made the Scary Gay Lifestyle seem so mundane.
If Grace Jones and Madonna had a baby it would be a whole lot like Lady Gaga. I don’t find her at all original or interesting.
maus
@lamh32: unghhhh i am so sick of her and her dull music.
@Jager: It’s “gay” like terrible Junior Vasquez-ish tribal house is gay. Pandering and unoriginal.
Eric U.
@Cathie from Canada: I need to call these people on myself, I always have the worst yard on the block
Corner Stone
@Nellcote:
I’ve been trying to wrap my head around this for at least 10 minutes now.
Punchy
I think you might be gay.
Allison W.
so apparently an anonymous WH aide commented that labor wasted their members money on the Arkansas Dem primary and all hell has broken loose at DKOS. Jed Lewison has vowed to never let this anonymous aide forget his statement. Claiming that the author of said statement thinks he is God and that he must think that he is king of the world.
sigh.
Bill E Pilgrim
@Mark S.:
Really? She’s still going on about this bullshit?
A job he had just out of college at 20-something, before going to law school, before becoming an attorney, before being a law professor, an Illinois Senator and a United State Senator– she’s holding up as a comparison to her entire career?
I’d say the stupid it burns but this has a way to go to reach stupid.
A lot of gullible fools out there.
asiangrrlMN
I am going to be buying my first home within the next year or two. All I want are two bedrooms, one bathroom, and enough space for my cats to play. I don’t cook so I don’t care about the kitchen. I like wood (and we have lots of hardwood houses in MN), so I don’t care about carpet. It will be my last home most likely as I don’t plan to move, and I am certainly not getting married or having kids. I don’t care about sinks or color (because as noted, the walls can be painted). I don’t even care if there’s a dishwasher (that would be me). I must be really unAmerican, then.
@arguingwithsignposts: Since I don’t know if you’ll visited the other threads again, I just want to say that Lady Smudge is so beautiful. I really love her eyes.
@Bill E Pilgrim: I didn’t even see that line. What an ass she is. I hope hers is the next one Obama kicks.
Eric U.
@Allison W.: When Lincoln voted against the EFCA, she really killed her union support. I doubt she is going to win in November. I don’t understand party dems going against labor, it’s the only thing that clearly differentiates the parties on an ongoing basis.
Nellcote
@Bill E Pilgrim:
Mr. Goatblower is getting 5.4% and Ms. Taintz was about 26% out here in CA.
asiangrrlMN
@Nellcote: Orly Taitz was running in the Republican Primary, right? So, she clearly did not get a majority of the vote, but who won the nomination?
And, of course, both of the power women won the GOP nominations out there as well. Sigh. To back up Little Boots upthread, this is not what I meant when I said I wanted more women in politics!
Mark S.
@asiangrrlMN:
You said the a-word! Where is my fainting couch?
asiangrrlMN
@Mark S.: I don’t know, but here are some pearls you can clutch! Oh, and you can kiss my ASS while you’re lying on your fainting couch. (I’m just snarking you, I hope you can tell).
My brother is a Christian, and he says ass. He said, “It’s a part of the body. It’s not a swear word.”
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I honestly don’t know what to think about Meg Whitman. I’m just demoralized by the fact that the three ‘rising star’ females of the GOP are those three (Palin included). Sigh.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@asiangrrlMN: I think in another age, Meg Whitman might have been a decent person, back when it meant something to be a “moderate Republican”. Didn’t she pick the GOP because she figured she’d have a better chance of being a big fish?
How the idiot Fiorina ever got into a position where her resume would overshadow her stupefying ignorance bewilders me.
Mark S.
Oh man, Chicken Lady lost her primary.
asiangrrlMN
@Mark S.: Any chance I get to post this Chicken Lady again, I’m going to take it.
P.S. Oh no! The word ‘ass’ is in the link.
@Bill E Pilgrim: Crack me the fuck up, you do.
Bill E Pilgrim
@Nellcote: Well I’m glad to see that as low as the regard is that people have for a visibly insane clown-haired conspiracy theorist and professional frivolous lawsuit crackpot, they find Mickey Kaus six times less palatable than even that.
Shows some sense of taste, anyway.
Bill E Pilgrim
@asiangrrlMN: Hey no fair playing time warp games. You’re commenting on comments after yours now. I always knew there was something otherworldy about you.
asiangrrlMN
@Bill E Pilgrim: Yup. It’s a daily struggle to use my powers for good and not for evil.
Mark S.
With Chicken Lady out, I guess it’s back to beating it to Virginia Foxx.
Yutsano
@asiangrrlMN:
Seeing as you are Taiwanese, I consider this statement rather ironic.
I’m looking at the primaries this way: the vast majority who won today won’t in November, especially in California. I’m calmly awaiting the delicious taste of wingnut tears when they find they failed to stop the sociaIist Obama. or to put another way. NANCY SMASH!!
@Mark S.: Chicken Lady lost? So who got it then? And did Gibbons get his ass handed to him?
EDIT: Yup. Oh man there shall be much gnashing of teef amongst Republicans this eve.
Mark S.
@Yutsano:
Somebody named Sharron Angle, endorsed by the teabaggers.
Wile E. Quixote
@lamh32:
That is the gayest fucking video I’ve ever watched. It is so fucking gay, I mean you could make a video Lindsey Graham as the meat in an Andre Bauer, Larry Craig sandwich with George Rekers on the side hanging from the ceiling in a crotchless gimp costume and getting Bukakke’d by the every guy with a current ad on Rentboy.com and it still wouldn’t be as gay as this video. Just ickier.
This video is so incredibly fucking gay. Holy Shit, it’s awesome! I’ve watched it four times already and am trying to find it on iTunes. It has everything! You’ve got the Madonna style visuals with the Catholic religious iconography and the black and white Vogue homage about four minutes in. You’ve got the gay leather fascists, the Abba style beat and the cool Annie Lennox homage where she’s wearing the leather trenchcoat and the wrap around sunglasses and tons of BDSM/rough sex imagery. A red and white leather nun’s habit and the outfit with the M-16 tits. I seriously have to get this video on my iPod. I’m going to get this video on my iPod, drink a Starbuck’s energy drink and a bottle of Gatorade and then go to the gym and spend two hours on the elliptical trainer doing nothing but watching this video over and over again.
I think I have a new favorite music video to go along with Freedom and Vogue.
Yutsano
@Mark S.: From what I understand she’s actually less appealing than Lowden was. So it’s entirely possible Harry may yet save his job. Not that I feel the need to cut him slack just because I’d rather a Dem represent Nevada, he still needs to keep the balls he’s had recently. And I haven’t forgiven all the milquetoast reactions during the health care debate. The next step is to get Ensign out of a job. What the hell is happening with that supposed investigation anyway?
asiangrrlMN
@Yutsano: Well, I was born in Minnesota, so technically, I am an American, though I do not have a long-form birth certificate. Hi, hon! How are you? The woman who won in Nevada is even batshitcrazier than the chicken lady.
I am not as sanguine as you are about the ignoble defeat of the crazy in November.
Wile E. Quixote
@lamh32:
Plus you’ve got this totally fucking awesome Tom of Finland thing going on. I can’t believe that I had to watch this video six times before I saw that.
Bill E Pilgrim
@Wile E. Quixote: I think I liked that song better when it was called Fernando.
youtube.com/watch?v=4ohr4P8E_io
Yutsano
@Wile E. Quixote:
Dear Allah man, are you going for the title of biggest masochist on Ballon Juice or something? I made it six minutes in before the song bored me (sucks because at first I thought it had potential but then it went into overproduced territory, which I get is pretty much everything she does) and I just had to stop. Plus the whole video is bad leather sex fantasy. All I could think of watching that was Leonard and Larry, mostly because one is a leather freak.
@asiangrrlMN: I no haz long form birth certificate, but I was ferrin born in Hawai’i too so I guess I don’t count.
I love it when I kick ass at work and I make everyone else look like a slacker. I get oddly puffed up about that fact. Otherwise I’m just ducky. Got my surgery bill today, still waiting for the part I have to pay if anything.
@Bill E Pilgrim: Heh. I thought of that too. And I will say that while most of what she does is total crap Lady Gaga does have decent pipes. She deserves much better material than gayboy techno schmaltz.
asiangrrlMN
@Bill E Pilgrim: I love ABBA. If that makes me wrong, then I don’t care to be right. I hate VEVO. The videos always take forever to download for me. Lady Gaga bores the shit out of me, and I think the beginning of that song (‘coz that’s as far as it’s downloaded so far) sounds like the beginning of this song by Ace of Bass. And, get your ass off my lawn.
/grumpy old lady rant.
Yutsano
FYWP. I shall await Anne Laurie’s mad moderation skillz to liberate my comment cuz I ain’t redoing it.
Wile E. Quixote
@Bill E Pilgrim:
Yeah, I love ABBA, but how many videos did they do that were chock full of Tom of Finland leather boys and the female leads wearing red and white leather nun’s habits and bras with M-16 barrels built into them built into them? As good as ABBA is I’m afraid the answer to that question is a big fat zero. And I view it as a homage to ABBA, Madonna and Annie Lennox. Of course I’m one of those people who really liked Ace of Base and didn’t give a shit when people told me they were ripping off ABBA because if they were they were doing a fucking brilliant job of it.
Joseph Nobles
@Mark S.: Sharron Angle is drunk with success. Her acceptance speech is on C-Span or will be shortly. Reid is gonna make mincemeat outa her.
On the other hand, Nikki Haley is Sarah Palin plus brains. Watch out for this one.
Wile E. Quixote
@Yutsano:
Weird, I saw your comment and then it disappeared. Hey, sure, the song might be a bit overproduced and the video a bit long at eight minutes and forty three seconds (I wanted to see how long it was after the ninth time I watched it) but it had to be. Look, there’s probably some sort of physical constant, derived from Ohm’s law, special relativity, the ideal gas equation that shows that any attempt to concentrate homoerotic imagery beyond the limits reached in this video will require an asymptotically increasing amount of energy to the point where the very fabric of space and time will be warped, if not completely torn asunder.
Wile E. Quixote
Plus the choreography is fucking awesome. The only video that has more awesome choreography is of course Vogue.
Yutsano
@Joseph Nobles: One issue with her though, I call it the Piyush problem. She may yet get elected governor, but with all the crazy from the teabaggers regarding anything brown, I don’t see how she can go much further. You can only whitewash yourself so far.
@asiangrrlMN: At every single dance I went to in college, “Dancing Queen” had to be played at least once while I was present. I’m proud to say that tradition has continued at every wedding I’ve been to with my college friends. I haz my own meme, I’m so happy.
Wile E. Quixote
Plus there’s the choreographed jacking off motion that she and the dancers make at 4:19. I should probably stop watching this. At least until I get up tomorrow.
Yutsano
@Wile E. Quixote: I overlinked when I answered Bill so I got kicked to the sin bin. I owe Anne Laurie cookies now I’m thinking.
And now edit is fucked up for me too. FYWP with one of wifey’s rusty pitchforks.
Wile E. Quixote
Plus the video has to be eight minutes and forty three seconds long because if you’ve slaughtered every cow in Australia to make leather shorts, trenchcoats, nun’s habits and uniforms then damnit, you don’t want their sacrifice to be in vain and spending any less than eight minutes and thirty seconds would be an insult to their memory!
Mark S.
@Joseph Nobles:
Yeah, but if she slept with this guy and wasn’t either dead drunk or in the middle of three day meth binge, I’m not sure it could work between us.
Yutsano
@Mark S.: Well, absolutely technically, it was “inappropriate sexual contact” which the male partaker has never elaborated upon. So she could have just touched his naughty bits in the bathroom or something. It of course leads one to rampant speculation of course. Sad that the SC Dems don’t seize upon this opportunity.
Mark S.
@Yutsano:
Did you look at that picture? Would you touch “Sic Willie” anywhere without industrial strength latex gloves? I think I’d respect her more if she had just done Ron Jeremy.
Yutsano
@Mark S.: Oh he is not on my doable list, I’m just saying that if he’s Nikki’s type then mazel tov. And if Ron Jeremy had done her she’d be ruined for any other man on the planet. Plus, well, eww. Size doesn’t make up for THAT either.
Bill E Pilgrim
@Wile E. Quixote: @asiangrrlMN: @Yutsano:
Was just teasing really, but it did strike me as reminiscent somehow. I like ABBA too actually, though not at the time. It’s become this sort of anthemy thing for a whole era, well that Dancing Queen song has anyway. What was that great Australian movie?
I don’t like sappy techno music either, but that video is pretty amazing in certain ways. France is full of the most gawdawful neo-disco techno breathy singers mouthing to those sorts of Madonna clone songs also, whaddya gonna do? It’s universal.
But I do think it’s an interesting video. Technically interesting but collectively nonsense, may be the phrase I’m looking for.
@Joseph Nobles:
In a zombie sort of way that’s actually kind of scary.
Yutsano
@Bill E Pilgrim: “Deu Deu Etre Bebe”. When France apologizes for that musical atrocity I will forgive them. And yes I have heard it.
I can agree with this assessment. Although it still seems like a leather bear fantasy production.
Are you thinking of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert? The movie that made me aware of this little place called Alice Springs that has no real right to exist as a town where it does?
Bill E Pilgrim
@Yutsano: No this one.
Mark S.
@Bill E Pilgrim:
That was a great movie.
Yutsano
@Bill E Pilgrim: @Mark S.: I’ve actually never seen it. I suppose I’ll have to check it out now.
asiangrrlMN
@Yutsano: It’s very good. Uneven, but good.
@Yutsano: And it will continue if I ever get hitched for real.
Pause a beat.
Bwahahahahhahahaha!
@Wile E. Quixote: You and me–mind-meld with the Ace of Bass.
All right. I’m out, bitchez.
fucen tarmal
lady gaga makes me feel bad for john waters who made a career out of simultaneously exalting and immolating bad taste. clearly taste, is beside the point, quaint, we live in a post-taste world….
the food porn and the house porn channels really don’t bother me, i have to believe most of what they show is hyper-real, in other words, people really don’t do that, except on tv. i have noticed, however, when i am outside in the yard, and folks are walking by on mini-real estate tours, where they stroll through the neighborhood, commenting and pointing at houses, that they think nothing of asking how much i paid, or how much the neighbors paid, who was selling, etc(as if i would tell, know or would care, or care to discuss it). its a weird fucking thing, i have to think that results from these shows…..
btw i don’t even live in a place that is all that nice, at least in my opinion.
Kat
Mike Holmes ROCKS!
I recently read that he’s the 2nd most-trusted person in Canada.
Too bad we don’t have more people like him everywhere.
Thank you HGTV for Holmes on Homes. I’m totally addicted.
dmsilev
@asiangrrlMN:
I’m going through the process right now, also for the first time, and I hear you. Since everything in this neighborhood is either “vintage” or a gut rehab of an old building, hardwood floors are standard. Which is good, because I like the look of hardwood. It’s mostly condos, conversions of 1920s era walk-up apartments, which has both good and bad points.
I do insist on a built-in dishwasher. Doesn’t have to be fancy, but it does have to work.
dms
Tattoosydney
@Wile E. Quixote:
@Yutsano:
Sorry hon – on this one I am with Wile E. Yes, the song is just barely ok, and 8 minutes is way too long to listen to Ms Gaga say “Alejandro” seven hundred times, but that was a kick arse video.
freeulysses
Heather is a friend of this balloon-juicer, so it’s funny to me that of all the things on television, you make reference to a show that featured someone i know in real life. she’s actually a really cool person.
bemused
I’ve never gotten the passion for two sinks in the bath vanity. Fine if the two sinks don’t take up most of the counter space but invariably on hgtv, I see mere inches between the walls & edges of sinks. There’s no room to set down grooming tools from electric shavers to hair dryers. We are almost finished with a 2 year bathroom remodel. We knocked out a wall between a very small bathroom & very small bedroom to make one large bathroom. We put in a 7 ft vanity which gave us mucho drawer storage space. We watched a lot of bathroom redos on hgtv & the 2 sink fad didn’t grab us at all. Instead we chose one large oval 19″ sink that we love & have plenty of counter space. We’ve never liked bumping into each other in front of the vanity at the same time anyway, dodging each other in the kitchen is bad enough. We prefer making ourselves gorgeous solo.
Svensker
House Hunters used to be fun, but now, I swear, every single episode features development McMansions with great rooms, granite countertops, stainless appliances, and master bedrooms the size of my entire house. Everything is painted beige and there is beige carpeting throughout except for the kitchen and bathrooms which have “natural” tile. And they all have 3 car garages — because apparently you need 3 fucking cars to live in these monsters since you sure as shit can’t walk anywhere. No wonder Americans want to bomb and torture everyone — they’re bored out of their minds.
caune
@tammanycall:
But you can add wood floors, and if you have two bathrooms, you have two sinks, no? Some of these people act like bad carpet is a deal breaker.
And don’t get me started on what a pain in the ass stainless steel appliances are to keep clean..ugh!
I do love House Hunters International though. Some of those apartments in large international cities wouldn’t be fit for a fine American dog, LOL
bemused
@Svensker:
I switch channels when House Hunters episodes are about cookie cutter housing developments, McMansion size or smaller. Those homes bore the hell out of me. They all look the same. Bland, no character & almost sterile. The yards are usually just as boring. It’s more fun seeing homes in older neighborhoods that have their own unique features.
bemused
@caune:
I know what you mean about stainless steel. I use Wieman’s stainless steel wipes sold at Target which works the best of any other cleaner I’ve tried.
asiangrrlMN
@dmsilev: Since it’s only me, and since I don’t cook, I don’t need a dishwasher. I haven’t used one in years. But, yeah, to your other points. Most of the houses in the neighborhood I like are pre-1950s (which I like) and hardwood floor (which I LOVE).
@Tattoosydney: #Peers suspiciously at you# You’re gayer than I thought!
mnpundit
@tammanycall: This is why my wife and I are committed to two sinks if we ever purchase a house.
Panurge
You know, for once I thought I’d splurge. I ALMOST bought an entirely new kitchen at the last Ikea sale, but the installation charges would’ve brought me up to about $5000, but at the last minute I decided I’d just replace the sink and countertop (butcher-block beech, BTW) and get some panels to put on the kitchen walls (which currently have wallpaper that’s been painted over white. Yeah). But I got me a mountable stainless-steel microwave, and now I’m thinking I should’ve just gotten the white one. (I live in a 1BR condo that’s been renovated maybe once since it was built in about 1965.) Am I bad? (I still want new doors; two of them have fallen apart and I have no idea how to put them back together.)
You know, I don’t begrudge people stuff like two sinks and stainless-steel appliances and granite countertops. The problem is the MONSTER HOUSES people keep insisting on buying. ISTR that people were originally convinced they’d be a handy investment opportunity–you know, sell the place once you retired and buy something smaller. Funny how that worked out… And besides, by the time you retired you’d be attached to the place and wouldn’t want to sell it.
Oh, Lady Gaga–this is why I don’t identify as GAY. You could hardly do better if you were actively trying to make being gay unappealing. New wave and disco have ruined my life.
Amanda
I loved that episode of property virgins. She was indeed a very cool person and I really liked how she wanted to save rather than toss the historic charm of the house.
and I love Holmes on Homes — love his righteousness and that he’s a real teacher and a believer in permits/regulation. the guy is awesome and i like how he lets his team members shine too and really gives props to the trades people he works with. a class act all around.