Soul Taco’s are filled with secret ingredients covered with cheese and then baked. Mr. HIH used to place taco shells in the grooves of the oven shelf lined with tin foil. This worked out okay for years but when we bought a new oven with wider grooves it was impossible.

One night while we were breaking one too many taco shells I decided to search the words “taco rack” via the internet. Luckily I found the Taco Rack by La-Cook-a-Rack-a. The first time Mr. HIH prepared his secret tacos using the Taco Rack he said, “Why didn’t we get one of these years ago? This is awesome!”

Learn more about this nifty gadget from La-Cook-a-Rack-a:

For  tasty taco recipes and directions to making the perfect taco in just 4 easy steps, check out http://tacorack.com

I didn’t make it to the Ultimate Fan event but I did find a cool video via Hot Topic.

If you have seen the film tell us what you think about it.

For more on Johnny Depp, click here to read a great article by writer Lizzy Cline in EK One magazine.

Now here’s a dude that says wait a minute I woke up early, watched the video, found hidden cuts and made a video to tell you about it on YouTube. Let’s see what he has to say:

Of course “This Too Shall Pass” is just one video going viral in the last few days and just like most viral vids, this too shall pass.

Enter The World of Teddy Ruxpin: http://www.teddyruxpin.com

Did you or someone you love have a Teddy Ruxpin? Don’t be shy, share with us.

Maybe a trip down retro TV lane will bring back the passion. Let’s see if an episode of ALF will help.

This year she’s in 3rd grade and that’s when I noticed the pace picking up quite a bit. These days multiplication, division and complex word problems have been thrown into our homeschool equation.

While browsing the internet for content that might help with math concepts I found these cool resources:

Ms. Robinson says, “Let’s bounce to education.”
Here she is with the 9’s Tables featuring the Delray Divas Step Team. You ready?

These guys know how to rock the standards with kickin’ skip counting tunes and songs such as Parallel or Perpendicular, Mean Mode Median, and the Place Value Rap.

Multiplication Hip Hop sets all their songs to award winning music from 2 Pac Shakur, 50 Cent, Ludacris, and many more. Here’s their Tribute to the King of Pop:

Learn math & reading through musical videos that make difficult concepts simple with Learning Upgrade. Their math portion starts at Grade 5 and goes up through Algebra concepts.

I was searching the intertubes for information about George Washington when I came across the National Geographic YouTube channel. This looks like an interesting episode. From the comments it also looks like many are not happy with the “recent discoveries” about George Washington. What do you think?

Discover America’s first home and find more information about George Washington, visit http://www.mountvernon.org/

It’s a Valentine’s weekend and love is in the air. What better way to get in the mood then with 5 songs from Air Supply? Don’t answer that!

Air Supply has every phase of love covered. If you’re Lost in Love, experiencing Young Love, asking The One That You Love for another day or even All Out of Love. For those of you with a love for 70’s and 80’s love songs Air Supply will be here Now and Forever.The 5 on Friday is back this week inspired by love and full of hot Air Supply:

Lost in Love

Young Love

The One That You Love

All Out of Love

Now and Forever

Become an AIRHEAD, find tour info, and much more at the Official Air Supply site: http://www.airsupplymusic.com

Happy Valentine’s weekend!

Follow Mishka  http://twitter.com/mishkathehusky
or visit her Official YouTube channel to hear what other words she likes to say.

We went to the library the other day, and the kiddo recognized many great Americans honored in the children’s section for Black History Month.

She said, “Martin Luther King Jr., George Washington Carver, the lady that made the Underground Railroad, and my Aunt Virginia.”

Her Great Aunt Virginia is my husband’s father’s sister. She was also an award-winning author of children’s books.

Virginia Hamilton won numerous awards for literature including the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal, the Coretta Scott King Award, and the Hans Christian Andersen Award. Her book Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush was awarded a Boston Globe-Horn Book Award.

Check out this retro Snipet from fuzzymemoriestv.TV

Many of her stories went from the printed page to other media such as her novel The House of Dies Drear made into a film starring Moses Gunn, and Shavar Ross in 1984. She collaborated with James Earl Jones to narrate her book The People Could Fly on CD.

Newbery Medalist Virginia Hamilton tells 24 stories that kept her ancestors’ culture alive during slavery, from spirited animal trickster tales and robust tall tales to spine-chilling tales of the supernatural and moving narratives of slaves in search of freedom. Twelve of these tales are on the 78-minute CD, including the hauntingly beautiful title story, “The People Could Fly,” Booklist praised the recording as “an outstanding and most welcome production that both complements and extends the original work.”—from her official website www.virginiahamilton.com

Her stories inspire young and old to read, write and share their own stories with future generations. Virginia’s love of storytelling and the arts have been passed down to her own children. Her son Jamie Adoff is a writer, and her daughter Leigh Adoff is an opera singer.

Virginia Hamilton left this earth on February 19th, 2002 but her stories can be found in libraries, bookstores, and inside our minds and hearts, thank you Virginia.

“The past moves me and with me, although I remove myself from it. It’s light often shines on this night traveler: and when it does, I scribble it down. Whatever pleasure is in it I need pass on. That’s happiness. That is who I am.”—Virginia Hamilton

I had no clue it was once illegal. Who knew it was taboo? Speaking of who, how about The Who…

Here we go with some Pop Culture Syndrome synapses. Doesn’t Pete Townshend from The Who look a lot like Schmendrick the magician from The Last Unicorn?

I was never a pinball wizard but I wasn’t too shabby either. TILT!

If I could have any pinball machine in the world what would it be? I think I’d go with an Edward Scissorhands theme, or maybe Gilligan’s Island.

How about you? What would your ultimate pinball machine look like?

The Last Unicorn on IMDb click here.

Official website for The Who: www.thewho.com

Cool pinball machines for sale: www.thepinballcompany.com

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?

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

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!

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.

“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.”

Here’s the short version. Mork was an alien that landed in Colorado and was lucky enough to move in with Mindy a hot chick that was also super sweet and could rock overalls like nobody else. Besides all that out of this world retro nonsense I was searching for some Shazbot flashbacks the other day and found this clip that sums up my feelings about my website.

Check it!

See I don’t make money on this site. I don’t tally viewers or try to get more hits. I make friends, acquaintances, let off some creative steam and take a break from the dirty dishes. This little clip of Mork talking about workmanship made me think about my feelings towards this site and what I see happening in 2010.

I’ve been wrestling now for weeks over what to do here. I started this site as a creative endeavor and I’ve had a great time but last year it started to become somewhat of a part time job that I don’t get paid for. With housewife duties, homeschooling and general life it’s tough to fit in PR requests about George Clooney’s latest movie or the latest in organic snack products. I’m honored that so many PR companies wanted to let a little old housewife like me in on the latest happenings but it was all getting a bit much. I don’t want this site to feel like work.

Housewife in Hollywood.com is really my own personal blog, a blog that just happens to have some pretty cool interviews with fascinating people and is decorated with retro flashbacks and at least one or two Partridge Family tunes.

I inherited a great work ethic from my dad and so this site/blog will keep on keeping on but just so everyone understands I’m not keeping up with the internet Jones’s.

2010 is fast approaching. Let’s take a break and listen to ABBA sing Happy New Year, they also give us some handy advice.

Oh and Nanu Nanu to you and yours!