Double Stimulated V-Spot: May 18th, 2011

by B Condon 9:09 PM

Your favorite list, just like EW's Bullseye and Nylon's Radar, is back... and double the "stimulation" (insert naughty giggle here). I really had to scrape my brain for the most ultimate greatest things that have happened in the last three months but despite personal issues as of late, it's been difficult. So lean back and enjoy... (noting how horrible that sounds)

Fortune Feimster

 Feimster is at last getting great credit as a comedienne, and we all know that stand-up comedy and I have a strange relationship. But as soon as this ex-Last Comic Standing contestant stepped on Chelsea Lately with a dead-pan humor and a "yeah I know I'm a lesbian, let's move on [I'm not capitalizing on it]" I fell in love. I truly fell in love, love ...

Chelsea Lately (02/15/11) - Part 1 by butterflykisses82

...and love. 

While I am more interested in comedians who embellish on popular culture more, Fortune leaps on the ranks alongside Colbert and Handler in my book. But I'm looking as her employment on Chelsea Lately as another slow lurch forward to sex being next to nothing in pop culture.

Freddie Highmore's Back!!!!

 "Little Charlie Bucket" is officially 18 and is a Sundance favorite.... and please make me feel better thatt I'm not the only one who did not forget him. Who could forget the way the six year old could have an emotional breakdown in both an uncredited role as "Young Arthur" in Mists of Avalon AND "Finding Neverland" getting misty eyed themselves in the process? Well, Freddie is back with two new projects ("Toast" which was supposed to come out last year as well "The Art of Getting By" which is speculated for this year) as the Sundance favorite "Homework" starring alongside Emma Roberts. This looks VERY promising! And he looks damn good!

Peach Makeup

This adventure of finding peach makeup is finally at a head - albeit it took paying five dollars for Revlon Top-Speed "Peachy." And this shade of makeup, be it nail polish or lipstick or eyeshadow, is like a natural tanner which seems to be a good middle ground for the latest "no makeup" campaign celebrities have been on. My opinion? People have forgotten the initial concept of makeup was made to ENHANCE and not make girls (or men) look like clowns. Since summer does bring out more colorful outfits, makeup should look more natural but pack a little colorful punch. 

Peach Eyeshadow, I'm coming for you now!

Sweet & Sara Bark Rocky Road

Bread Garden does it again with the vegan dessert. First Liz Lovely and now Sweet & Sara's Vegan Marshmallows - dude... just... dude. There are literally no words for this magical concoction of Sara Sohn's vegan marshmallows and roasted almonds doused in a layer of Belgian chocolate. Read the About Section, shows that victory truly does taste sweet.

Save the Soaps Campaign

Yes, it is soap operas and presumably it's a "dying genre" according to those who make fun of fans like me that somehow fit the stereotype. Forget that and look into the recent news of the cancellation of All My Children (aired in 1970) and One Life to Live (1968, and also is a torch-carrying soap for being one of the first shows EVER in both prime time and daytime premiering social issues ... childhood abuse, rape, homophobia, AIDS, prostitution...) is highly unfair, not just because it's a fan ranting on soap opera. 

Previously the president of CBS daytime, Brian Frons has been known to cut soaps thus far and  employees in both Guiding Light and As the World Turns. Frons is now under the employment of "Mouse Ears" as the president of ABC daytime and he is cutting two socially prolific soap operas. So really it's not only that torch, it's including the execution in how he canceled the soaps.

There was the possibility for the longest time, speculation and  rumors of OLTL and AMC's demises starting as early as last year... cast and crew didn't even know a thing until Frons's interview in April 2011's Soap Opera Weekly when he officiated it and then ABC put out the announcement. That is lowest of the low, even if you don't care for soap operas, at least assist in the sanctity of corporation and going against the machine.

So far soap fans along with myself have been able to pull Hoover's sponsorship from flooding their phone lines and email inboxes - and continuing to other sponsors such as Hershey's and now are targeting ad companies to hold ABC where their wallets are. So far DWTS has gone down in ratings, The Voice on NBC soars - One Life to Live has been number 2 in the Nielsen ratings. And yet that doesn't stop Frons from walking past a boycott to get to his office and was noticed laughing hysterically at the pissed off soap fans as well as simply ignoring his voicemails, no hate, but concerned soap fans managing to work past the emotion. It was unfair treatment on top of ruining daytime TV with "what Americans want" food and improvement shows - now, unfortunately it's personal.

Is it unfair? Join the club

Best Things You Overhear in Iowa City

While having drinks and uh-may-ziiiing four cheese bread with a friend, both of us overheard a waitress say, "If I had a guitar, I'd tell you all about it."

Classic.

Linda Medley's "Castle Waiting"

 

I have been singing the praises of this fairy tale and literature inspired graphic novel since I first read it just a few months ago. And in so lately, I picked up the library's copy today knowing I'll finish it by Saturday. It's that good. After Medora (Sleeping Beauty) leaves her kingdom "Putney" her legendary castle ends up becoming a legendary refuge for a small abbey of bearded nuns and multiple other characters, some of which are masked for mysterious reasons and a pregnant Duchess of Carrabas with an interbreed - the about 500 paged first volume is full of adventures and back stories, which truly reads like a Victorian novel at times. Just earlier this year, Medley put out volume 2 which is just as addicting, so much so you'll probably end up looking like a crazy person LOLing as you read. I know.

Andi Watson's "Paris"

If its possible to describe a graphic novelist as whimsy, Andi Watson is a God. Seriously. After falling madly in love with library read Glister (volumes 1 and 2 so far) then buying it on "Free Comic Day" at Daydreams Comics, I discovered a gem in "Paris," a very "lesbian-but-let's-just-say-it's-a-love-story-regardless-of-gender" graphic novel that blurs the lines of screenplay, graphic novel, and maybe poetry in between the lines with the assistance of Simon Gane's illustrations. 

Stereotypical Bohemian artist living in Paris Juliet is assigned a new freelance project to paint a young British woman's portrait before an important soiree in two weeks, but has difficulty capturing what it is that allures Juliet to Deborah. There is a whole lot more here than just the love story, including allusions to Degas and Ingres but mostly it's just about the pursuit about art than two ladies with tension between them. Oddly just in black and white ink, Gane's is able to exude just that.

Madison - Superwoman

I found a new addiction and it's not last.fm recommendations. Even better! nylonmag.com has free music downloads and righteously so, I flock to it. And thank God for a woman who sounds like one ovary of Annie and the other of Mr. Little Jeans which only means that Madison is worth a listen... and then multiple listens until you vomit rainbows of joy.