Housewife in Hollywood - housewifeinhollywood.com

There’s one YouTube channel I visit the most. It’s the Official Soul Train channel on YouTube. If I’m feeling funky I search for some Funk and Get Down with Don Cornelius and the Soul Train dancers in my living room.

I was groovin’ and movin’ with the line dancers the first time I saw the show. I must have been about 5 years old. A blond haired, blue eyed kiddo who knew she liked Soul Train way better than American Bandstand.

My dad loved The Temptations, The O’Jays, and anything R&B. He showed me my first dance moves and I caught on right away. So if you’re ever feeling a little bit funky, take the Love Train to the Soul Train station. You’ll feel groovy in no time.

Do you have a favorite Soul Train memory?

Thanks to MTV for their Hope for Haiti special including some wonderful performances. Here’s Justin Timberlake doing one of my favorite Leonard Cohen songs.

Please give your support to Haiti now, http://www.hopeforhaitinow.org

While at the grocery store yesterday I noticed Heidi Montag on the cover of some mag looking a bit different. Okay maybe a lot different. I have to admit I haven’t kept up with the Spencer/Heidi stuff but it really doesn’t matter because they’re all over the place. I don’t watch The Hills but with magazines, radio, internet, & TV shows  it’s tough to be Speidi Free.

Speidi is a word taking all shapes and forms in Hollyweird. Here’s one my kiddo found from her favorite parody singer VenetianPrincess called Speidi Free:

Reality shows, plastic surgery, 15 minutes of fame, even if society becomes Speidi Free it’s inevitable Hollyweird will crank out other versions of the same idea. What do you think of all the Speidiness? Entertaining or Annoying?

Looks like Heidi is breaking away from Speidi a bit with her own music career. Check it here: http://www.myspace.com/heidimontag

Speaking of music, my brother told me about a cool production tool called Auto-Tune. It corrects pitch and just about anyone can go from their day job to pop singer quickly. I wish they had this connected to my local Karaoke Bar.

Here’s a viral vid of viral vid’s including Kanye West blasting Taylor Swift and the kiddo’s from “Charlie Bit My Finger” all Auto-Tuned so their words sound sort of like singing. What they can do with technology these days!

A lot has been happening in pop culture lately. The Playoffs, the Golden Globes, Jay Leno and the late night time slots. Honestly I have no comment. I’ve spent the last week away from most media. I’ve been online a bit and I’ve watched a few shows but I have to say that my interest in Hollywood is fading quickly these days.

This makes a bit of a problem since my blog is named Housewife in Hollywood.com. My tagline is, “The housewife part is true, Hollywood is just a metaphor.”

Luckily, to me Hollywood is a state of mind, an attitude, a desire to dream, that flashy pop coolness we all have inside us. Some hide it deep down under layers of To-Do lists while others show it off daily with hip style and fun interests. I don’t mind that my interest in Hollywood is changing or that my fascination with pop culture has shifted closer to counter culture lately.

I came across this poignant South Park clip the other day.

If you got this far you might be wondering WTFunk does this have to do with anything? Not much really, except that like Kyle Broflovski I’ve been asking what am I going to do. Some days I feel like The Fonz when it comes to this site. I should jump a few buses, say Aye and keep on being cool. Other days I think ahh “success is hollow, hollow like a dead tree”. If you watched the clip this would all make more sense. Maybe.

As David Lee Roth once said, I might as well jump.

Infomercials and As Seen on TV products have been around for decades. It seems that every week there’s another fabulous product for only $19.99. Seeing these commercials & fascinating new product innovations over and over got me thinking. Maybe I’m watching way too much TV.

But wait! There’s more! No not really, but here are 5 Infomercial Inspired Ideas to ponder:

Bumpit’s

Back in the 80’s we got our hair lift from teasing and a can of Aqua Net. Sorry ozone layer! These days there’s an easier and less hazardous solution called the Bumpit. They even have a Hollywood Bumpit. Yeah baby!

Changing ones head shape with hair is nothing new. Look at Marie Antoinette or Annette Funicello. But can the Bumpit withstand a Beach Blanket Bingo?

The Big Top Cupcake

Do we really need colossal sized cupcakes? My 8 year old thinks so. These cupcakes could feed The Brady Bunch because they’re 25x bigger than a normal size cupcake. 25x BIGGER! They can be filled with all sorts of tasty stuff like pudding and ice cream. You can have a cupcake with 2 flavors in one. Get inspired with all the fun ideas in the Big Top Cupcake Gallery, click here.

Don’t eat that whole Big Top at once! You might have some wacky cupcake dreams.

The Potty Patch

This is a tempting product for our household because we adopted an adorable and neurotic little Chihuahua named Nash a few years ago. He was an outside dog before we brought him to our home and like many Chi’s he has potty issues.

Maybe I should bring in a little bit of the outside with The Potty Patch. Let’s look at what this cute little Airedale named Basil thinks about it.

The InStyler

As a housewife I’m rarely in style with anything but this amazing rotating hot iron got me thinking about actually styling my hair once and awhile. They say it “styles faster than you ever dreamed possible” so I’m thinking being in style everyday could become a reality.

Redbook bestowed their MVP Most Valuable Product of 2009 on The InStyler. Let’s take a look as these Hollywood types use the InStyler to transform Haley’s fine, limp, no-body hair to something with kick, lift and WOW!

What do you think? Are you InStyle?

The Perfect Brownie Maker

My favorite dessert just might be brownies. I could eat a whole tray full. If had a tray full of perfect brownies I might eat two!

Perfect brownies are great but special brownies can get you in some deep hot fudge. Make sure all your ingredients are safe. If not, be sure to remember how many brownies you ate before calling 911. Check out this animation via Current about the cop who had too many special brownies.

Happy 5 on Friday! Here’s a song by the group CunninLynguists you can sing all weekend long.

When I first started this site I told people I used the “Following the White Rabbit” method to find interesting ideas for posts and interviews. This was a reference to the character Alice following a white rabbit down a rabbit hole into a fantasy world created by Lewis Carroll in his novel Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865). Alice follows the white rabbit not knowing where it will take her. With her curiosity sparked all she can do is follow while any questions she might have are dulled by the excitement of new and interesting things. Even the concerns that are downright irritating or at times even dangerous can’t stop her from following.

“Curiouser and curiouser!” Cried Alice (she was so much surprised, that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English).

So far this “Follow the White Rabbit” idea has served me quite well. Of course I’m not literally chasing a white rabbit. That would be nonsense now wouldn’t it? I am following any idea that I find interesting even if it turns out different than I hoped for.

With 2010 just beginning, I hope to continue this rabbit chase whenever possible. Meanwhile I’ve been researching all things Alice, partly because of my white rabbit notion and also the fun film trailers that are out starring my favorite actor Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter.

Tim Burton directs the film Alice in Wonderland coming out in March, 2010. As usual many of his own favorite actors are involved such as Helena Bonham Carter, Christopher Lee, Timothy Spall, and Alan Rickman. To see who else is on the cast list and get more info, click here for the official site of Disney’s Alice in Wonderland in 3D.

I’ve always loved Walt Disney’s animated version of Alice in Wonderland (1951). According to Burton this one will be quite different. Alice Kingsley is now 19 and finds herself chasing the rabbit once again back to Wonderland even though she has no recollection of being there before. It’s obvious from the trailer that he’ll be working his gothic magic on this film and Hot Topic has already gone merchandise crazy with everything from T-shirts to key rings. I know because I have one already myself. Thanks Aunt Diane!

All this Alice talk has me thinking of the song from Jefferson Airplane called “White Rabbit”:

Speaking of Grace Slick did you know she’s an accomplished artist? Check out her work by touring this link: http://www.areaarts.com/wonderland/tour.html

Remember what the door mouse said, “Feed your Head.”