I. Love. The. Hunger. Games. I’m reading them again for the second time. Today I was on the train reading Mockingjay and the girl next to me was reading it too and I was thinking about how excited I am for her that she’s reading it. So many people I know have read them and today I realized why.

I’m not even going to pretend that I’m saying something awesome and profound here, but I did figure it out. Katniss is a girl. The fantasy stories that are the hollywood favorites all have male heroes. Specifically, I’m going Star Wars & Lord of the Rings. The dudes I know LOVE these stories. They aren’t the stories of men who were born to be heroes. They are stories of nerdy young men who probably would have stayed inside playing video games forever if their aunt and uncle hadn’t been barbecued at the front door. They are stories of guys with height limitations that just held on tight enough and saved the world.

They are heroes. Reluctant heroes. That’s what makes these heroes so appealing, something could happen at any moment and turn a regular person into a hero. One day you’re eating your second breakfast and the next thing you know there are dwarves in your living room singing 85 stanzas of the most mundane song ever.

So just like you, guy who identifies with Legolas Greenleaf or Luke Skywalker or Elijah Wood, I identify with Katniss Everdeen.

Do I know how to shoot arrows? No. I did it once in junior high and had huge bruises on my forearms and complained that the target was too far away. Do I really in my heart of hearts think that I would be the one who could fight to the death to save humanity? No. If the world ‘ends’ tomorrow and someone writes a book about it in the very far future that follows the hero arch, I’m not in it. I’m not the hero. I might be mentioned once in passing in something like ‘and then there was Hawkes Klein in the kitchen canning beets’ which is much more my style.

I am just a girl who is damn proud of the hero.

Katniss never 100% embraces her fate. She doesn’t become any more excited about her new role as the books go on, she wouldn’t allow herself a ‘happily ever after’ she’s seen too much. Would she give it all up to be able to go back to her old life? I don’t think so. I think the entire time she understands that there is no going back and that even though it’s going to be difficult for her and for well, everyone, that she has to press on.

The thing is I needed a girl hero. I needed a big sister (do I think I would volunteer were my siblings taken away to be killed, yes) to look up to and be excited for and proud of. She’s pretty but only by accident and she doesn’t ever want to be thought of as anything but someone who would do anything for her family. She knows she’s not the smartest person in the arena, she’s not the best trained and she’s not the strongest. Her circumstances made her extraordinary.

The last woman I can think of in Young Adult lit that could be considered hero-ish is Hermione, because she reads and is awesome. Is Bella Swan a hero? Oh. Hell. No. Fairy tale princesses? No. Whoever Liv Tyler was in LOTR? No. Is Lisbeth Salander a hero? Not really.

I hope I’m just missing some. The women that I know and respect love The Hunger Games, I think it’s because there’s a love for the type of hero Katniss represents in all of us.

Who are your female literary heroes?

What is it:

• Pinterest is a place on the internet to save pictures of things that you like all in one organized space. It looks like a pin board that fancy people have in their offices when they are featured in design magazines.
• You ‘pin’ a picture and it links back to the page where you (or whomever first pinned it) originally found it.
• It looks like this:

What do I do immediately after sign up:

• Do the ‘find friends‘ thing and find your contacts who already are in pinterest and start following them
• Delete at least half of the pre-assigned boards so you look like you’re planning something awesome
• Add the ‘pin it’ button to your tool bar – do it right way so it’s done you won’t regret it!

Sign the petition here:

Progressive Change Campaign Committee PCCC | Petition Congress: Protect the Internet for Innovators!.

Wikipedia is dark today, use their tool to find you representatives in congress HERE.

Want to understand what’s going on? There is a great article on Mashable:

Why SOPA Is Dangerous

Click through to Google HERE for another petition.

Thank you!

There are no women in it.

I googled “Moneyball women” and what I get is even more disturbing. The movie producer and the studio head are both women. It’s not a secret that there are more men in Hollywood. We all remember that it took until 2008 for a woman to win “Best Director” at the Oscars. It’s frustrating enough that women have such a hard time breaking the movie-making glass ceiling. Then I hear statements like this regarding the challenges of getting the movie made, I can’t help but feel like we’re always one step forward and two steps back.

Doubling-down, another female specialty, Horovitz would argue. “It’s a fact of our species that women have to turn a no into a yes more often than men do,” she says. “Do you think my husband wanted to get married or have children?

uh what? You married someone who didn’t want to get married and had kids with someone who didn’t want to have kids? I can’t. That’s such a frustrating stereotype of a married couple.  It’s such a frustrating stereotype of a woman. I absolutely refuse to accept that women should accept that we get told ‘no’ more often. Like it’s something we should just laugh off? Oh dear me, silly world, always putting women last.

Others, like Laura Baudo Sillerman at Women’s Voices for Change hit the nail on the head:

Admittedly, it’s a true story that doesn’t lend itself to a big part for a woman, but it takes place in 2002. Is it really possible that the scene of the high-heeled, mature secretary arriving with two trays of coffee — one for Billy Beane, the modern general manager, and the other for John Henry, a supposedly progressive team owner — actually happened? And was this scene necessary? Was Beane’s relationship with his own secretary (again a mature woman) truly limited to barking the names of people to whom he wanted calls placed (and, oh yes, asking if the coffee was made)? Couldn’t the beautiful and gifted Robin Wright have been given more than just one scene during which she was restricted to indicating her loyalty to her supercilious second husband?

When this very pleasant very enjoyable film was finished (seriously, I liked it a lot) I wasn’t fixating on the number of women. I don’t love doing that, but when it’s this unequal and this over the top I feel like it creeps up on me and I cannot remain passive about it. Everything was amplified when this flashed across the screen:

Written by Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin

JCPE and I both yelled “Ahhhhh THAT’s WHY it was so good! Goddamit Aaron Sorkin another great movie! Best screenwriter of all time!”

Then I started thinking almost exactly what Laura Baudo Sillerman said above… why can’t I remember more than three women characters? Why don’t I know their names?

See? Similarly why can’t I remember any women who weren’t crazy girlfriends or sluts from Social Network while I’m at it? You can argue that there weren’t that many women who were involved in the making of Facebook, but there have to be stories out there where genders are at the very least equally represented. I started thinking when will we start telling those stories?

Now I’ve let it sit for 24 hours and I’ve gone from sort of ok with it to actually angry about it. I believe that Aaron Sorkin is the best screenwriter of all time. I believe that whatever the future holds for the planet earth that it 100% will include people performing Aaron Sorkin scenes for hundreds of years. The West Wing is our Hamlet, The Social Network is our Macbeth. I’m not mad at Aaron Sorkin for being a man, I’m grateful that he’s a writer, it’s no exaggeration when I say that his work has changed my life. I am mad at Aaron Sorkin for not putting his money where his mouth is.

What makes me upset is this:

This made me cry when I saw it. He makes a point to say to his daughter that “smart girls have more fun, and you’re one of them!” That’s awesome, great dad stuff Aaron!

Now please, please write another strong woman. There isn’t a women I know who wouldn’t say she looks up to CJ Cregg.You have the talent and the power to create something truly remarkable for the next generation of women.

Seriously:

I’m upset with you, Aaron Sorkin. I don’t think that it’s unreasonable to ask the person who is the best at their craft to please take a moment to write us a strong female-lead movie. True stories of strong women DO exist, you have the talent to bring these stories to life in a way that no one else has.  Do it for me, do it for the women who became interested in politics because of CJ. Do it for the women who became television producers because of Dana Whitaker. Do it for your daughter.

I LOVE Christmas music! I spend the week before Thanksgiving getting my holiday playlist all set up and this year was no exception. I’m pretty easy to figure out musically… I like the hits. I like to have fun listening to music, I like to sing along. I like to cry sometimes to “Jolene” or “I’ll never get over you getting over me” but for the most part I like FUN.

So I knew I’d want to get the Justin Bieber album. Oh. The. Biebs. I’m old-er than a teenager but not old-old so I think I’m in a good position to appreciate The Biebs for being fun. I have neither a teenage or a ‘I wasted my life’ crush on him. I just really like the part where Ludacris says ‘But I really wanna see her on the weekend’ in ‘Baby!’

What I’m saying is. I’m easy to please.

[Just.... one teeny tiny rant-like thing before I start. I typed in 'J...u...s...t' into Itunes and it auto brought up Justin Bieber, as the #1 Justin. Justin Timberlake was #2!!! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD TIMBERLAKE! I GET IT I know you want to act blah blah blah just ugh come on and make some music!]

For the most part Under the Mistletoe is awesome. It takes a little to get used to the fact that there are some new Christmas songs. I always think that’s a little strange, there are so many standards I’m totally ok with you just covering all of them and not creating anything new. But, if I was in charge of music we wouldn’t have All I want for Christmas is you. Which, Bieber covers… it’s…. ok. Not great, I don’t 100% believe Mariah Carey did anything besides mail in a cd of her original and maybe some glitter, but it’s fine.

Hits:

Like I said, I like the hits. The first single off the album is Mistletoe and every time it comes on I gravitate to the middle of the room and start singing. I can’t even help it. I already know the words. ie: in the time it took me to find this video and get the code I was rocking back and forth singing ‘Shorty with you! oooooh shorty with you!!’ what?! I know, it’s awesome.

There are also some pretty amazing collaborations. For ‘Traditional’ songs Bieber and Usher sing a beautiful rendition of The Christmas Song. Busta Rhymes and Beiber’s impression of a British rapper do Drummer Boy. Yeah, Busta! Where has he been and is that place jail? Didn’t everyone making a video of his get arrested once? Is that where he was? I’m cool with it, I’m glad he’s back.

Beiber teams up with Boyz II Men for Fa La La and his Santa Coming to Town is amazing. Your holiday dance party is all set!

Misses:

I’m an old fashioned girl. As in, I lived with my husband for three years before we got married but I would NEVER have brought him home for Christmas until we lived together! Is not being with your boyfriend and girlfriend a big deal in High School? What kind of kids are worried about the person they love not showing up for the holidays? Am I missing some sort of custody nuance because my parents got divorced when I was 20? I always thought that songs about missing Christmas were to make salesman dads feel better about their lives.

There’s A LOT of ‘oh my girlfriend isn’t here I wish I could cuddle all night long’ in this album. To that I say WHERE ARE YOUR PARENTS!!! If my teenager thinks that he can have his girlfriend sleep over on Christmas Eve he has another thing coming (unless she’s an orphan, I’m not a monster). Christmas Eve is the worst of these offenders. He says “It feels like Valentines Day!” No.

Most Jackson 5-y:

I know the kid is young (although not young enough not to take paternity tests for quickies backstage with strangers…) but Someday at Christmas is so Jackson 5 that I had to double take.

Most Religious:

This year is the year of Religious Tolerance! For me. I know the world is a mess, but I’ve become so chill with the world’s religions I want to sing them a song of peace and love in a very secular way. It’s new for me, and honestly it feels awesome. Pray is the most religious of all the songs on the album, but it’s nice. If you want to pray for people to have a better life, I think that’s really nice and good for you! There’s also a beautiful Silent Night.

Conclusion:

You should get this. Grab your nearest crush and dance near the tree! You only get a month of this cheer don’t let the fact that it’s The Biebs stop you from enjoying it. It’s Christmas everything is fine!

Happy Holidays Poptenners!!

Love,

HK

I bought it on Itunes but you can get it on Amazon HERE.

So, picture it… Astoria 2011… It’s late and I can’t sleep and I’m reading my Everyday with Rachel Ray and come across an article on what our favorite not-household-name-but-hey-he-cloud-be dream boat Josh Charles likes to eat. It’s a monthly column where Rachael asks a famous person to talk about their favorite foods and food traditions (this month it’s Donnie Whalberg!)

Just because he’s not a household name yet doesn’t mean he doesn’t deserve to be. This is him over there on the left.

Recognize him? He’s been on TV a lot – head over to his IMDB page HERE and then hop back here!

The man is from Baltimore so he loves crabs and old bay etc… I tweeted about his culinary tastes immediately, did you miss it? That’s cool man it was PRINTED IN EVERYDAY WITH RACHAEL RAY! (this is the first time we were printed for something we said on twitter)

Can’t sleep! Found the best thing ever! @BaltimoreJosh interviewed in @RachaelRayMag! #swoon

Get it? I tweeted @ Josh Charles at his name @BaltimoreJosh and noted that it was @RachaelRayMag. Rachael noticed and thought it was cute (presumably) and decided to print it in her magazine! I find printing a tweet to be hilarious! Tweets are by definition short and immediate and don’t take time to go to the printers! I LOVE that someone loved one of our tweets enough to take the time to print it! It blows my mind!

We knew it was going to be printed last week when @RachaelRaymag tweeted that we were going to be printed in the October issue! We were SUPER excited! And then a few days later, social medial tragedy struck. SOMEONE in Josh Charles’ camp decided to take a ‘Social Media 101′ course* learned about personal branding and changed his twitter name to @MrJoshCharles. It’s literally the first thing you learn in seminars, get your name as your twitter handle, get yourself some google alerts and OWN your name! Good decision PR team, terrible timing for us!

The magazine comes out and it looks like we tweeted to nobody! If you thought it was cute and typed it in to see who we were tweeting at it would go to a broken profile! We look like the asshole here! When it COULD be argued that it’s the other way around! So we did the only thing that seemed to make sense. We ‘bought’ @BaltimoreJosh:

For the record I absolutely LOVE Josh Charles. He really did win us over as the cutie patootie ice cream man with the bitch sister with flat hair in Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead, and we were happy to see he entered his 20s with style in Sports Night! Plus, The Good Wife is fantastic and we really think he kills it as Julianna Margulies’ boss/old-possibly-new flame. We need to watch more of his movies! Any suggestions? Let me know if you have a favorite!

That was super fun! Thank you Rachael Ray!

* We don’t know that for sure but we’re willing to bet it’s true

UPDATE 9/15: We were contacted by Josh Charles’ PR team and asked very nicely to return @BaltimoreJosh, which we did of course! We only needed to make sure that Rachael’s fans knew who we were tweeting at so we didn’t look crazy! Then I immediately hopped on twitter and grabbed my maiden name back! Lesson learned, when you change your twitter name (which I recommend you do only once at the most) get back in there and make sure your old name re-directs!  In related news: WE WERE CONTACTED BY A MAJOR PR FIRM! We’re wiping the dust off our tuxs with tails and ball gowns because the big time is legit right around the corner.

HK

The biggest regret of my whole entire life is not buying BOM tickets when they were first available. I KNEW I was going to love it, I KNEW everyone was going to love it! I hesitated, and I lose at life. Now the tickets are approximately a zillion dollars and it’s sold out until the end of the world. So I’m forced to use my freaking imagination to figure out what’s going on. Luckily, in my head all white boys look the same.

Here’s what I can tell you for certain about The Book of Mormon: It is so fucking goddamn laugh out loud shit show hilarious fuck fuck amazeballs, shit fuck.

I swear A LOT and this was a lot of swearing. I hope that people were watching my face on the train as I listened to it and simultaneously laughed hysterically and cringed. I’ve met a lot of Mormons in my time and they’re for the most part perfectly normal and respectful people (actual line from BOM: let’s be really fucking polite to people!). Then when you get down to the actual beliefs it’s very difficult to understand what they’re thinking (actual line from BOM: We believe that in 1978 God changed his mind about black people!) What BOM gets across is the dichotomy between these people who very innocently believe what they’re told and have accepted that salvation is waiting them. While on the other hand they have to suppress any feelings they have of lust, homosexuality and caffeine.

If someone really really believes that this book will get you to that magical god-planet I guess it makes sense that they would want to share it with other people. It’s kind of nice actually. Am I becoming more accepting of religion now? Am I sympathizing with proselytizers? Did BOM just make me a better person? World=upside down.

Any fears that you have that BOM is offensive to Mormons I can assure you are unfounded. Everyone will probably be offended. Although in the end I think everyone’s problems will be a little more in perspective and faith itself will give you a reason to smile.

Trey Parker and Matt Stone are nothing short of geniuses and I feel like that word can’t possibly do them justice. They’re as talented as Bill Clinton is charming. How’s that?

This morning I downloaded the actual book The Book of Mormon to my kindle, so +1 for openmindedness and acceptance. Which I think is the point of BOM after all.

Like all of their fans I was thrilled when they announced that they were releasing a book! I even pre-ordered it for my Kindle and waited for it to arrive through the air waves on June 1. I knew, that any girls who made a living creating the smartest, most entertaining fashion blog on the interwebs would do a fellow Sweet Valley High aficionado proud. Indeed they did.

SPOILED is the closet envy, highschool crush alert, encouragement to blow dry inducing fun that summer reading should be about. Maybe I’m feeling nostalgic because I was just in a wedding with my highschool friends and spent the past week watching Golden Girls with my sister. So it was very right time right place for me to just love reading this book about highschool loyalties and all levels of sisterhood.

Young Molly Dix’s mother has just passed away and on her death bed she told her daughter that her father wasn’t in fact a dead serviceman, instead he was hollywood mega action-star Brick Berlin. The biggest issue is that Brick currently lives with his other daughter, Brooke, who is the same age as Molly! It’s not reaaaally a cheating scandal (I can only imagine The Fug Girls flipped when Arnold’s recent trysts came to light) but more of a timing thing. Molly moves to LA to start a new life with her new family and the requisite shenanigans that accompany a small time girl moving to a big city ensue.

A little bit Popular and a little bit Harry Potter (roll with me on that one) they had me at the sign that Brick’s driver held out for Molly at the airport that read: Ms. Chanandaler Bong. Questions were left unanswered at the end of the book but it only leaves me wanting more!

Fug Nation, put on your BCBG sundress and your Prada flip-flops, grab a protein shake and head the beach with SPOILED in hand. You won’t regret it!

Available now on the greatest website of all time, Amazon.

Congratulations to me people! I’ve moved past my “Prince William pic in my locker” stage to my “wow, I’m super glad I don’t have paparazzi following me around all the time and I love my totally non-royal but amazing fiance!” stage.

I love how riled up people are getting, especially Americans. A lot of NYC and USA centric blogs are riddled with comments like ‘Didn’t we get away from this monarchy?” and “Who cares!?!?!?!?” Ok. So you don’t care. Please move on. It’s on the news here but it’s hardly alllll over like it is over there, so just avoid it!

Then there’s this guy from Psychology Today (who, is probably just mad that is name is Seth Meyers and he’s not adorable)

How, I ask, could watching such a wedding – again, featuring people you’ve never met – make you feel good or better about your own life? How is spending time following the lives of others more fortunate than you any good for your self-esteem and your overall life satisfaction?

Awww Seth, nobody loves you, do they? [insert sad face] I’m sorry that it makes you feel terrible about yourself to be happy for other people! Even strangers and celebrities! I’m sorry that you live in a world where you’re trying to avoid a pretty hard to avoid celebrity culture! This is why we can’t have nice things Seth! This is why! Traditions are nice, even in monarchies. Yes, the wedding is expensive but it’s going to happen, there is nothing you can do. Also, your face is going to stay that way if you don’t cheer up you sour puss you!

So there are a few choices, you can be angry, you can be indifferent and you can be happy. I choose happy.

I will be tweeting from @popten live from Times Square starting at 4:45 am EDT tomorrow! So make sure to tune in!

1. Crate & Barrel is expensive man!
2. On the 8th day the Lord created Amazon, the most amazing wonderful useful website in all the land! (all images henceforth, courtesy of Amazon!)

Wondering what to register for? There are plenty of registery guides you can check out, Brides.com, About.com, which is really helpful for place setting guidelines etc and The Knot has a HUGE checklist (a shower radio! If only I had a shower that was big enough to hold both me and a radio!)

The geniuses at Amazon have created an easy registery creator and since its Amazon… well that means you have the power to register for just about ANYTHING. Like, seriously anything! So forget crystal goblets and guest towels and let’s make a list of things that will REALLY last forever!

1. Hand Carved Moose Head

If you’re anything like me (and I just assume most people are) the first thing you asked your partner for when you moved in together was a fake animal head to hang above the couch. Maybe you were shot down the first time and have been waiting for the right moment to bring it up again? Now’s the time to really put your foot down! The decorating decisions have to be made to last a lifetime and we’re all about setting ground rules! Just picture this guy with a little tinsel on his antlers during the holidays, or a pair of sunglasses in July! Endless fun and nobody got hurt!

2. A Christmas Tree!

When I was growing up in the 80s it was totally not cool to have a fake Christmas tree. My dad literally dragged us out to the forest to get our own tree (my actual first memory, being lost in the forest) and my mom spent December 1 – January 1 vacuuming up pine needles. Now that I’m older and wiser and afraid of fires and animals I’m leaning towards fake tree. It’s a onetime cost, you don’t have to murder a tree every year and I’m pretty sure that Sky Mall sells bags where you don’t even have to take the decorations off! (they do!)

3. Mini fridge with lock

You’re going to want this. I don’t care if it’s you first anniversary BBQ and you’re squeezing your work-friends onto your balcony to grill tofu burgers and you need a place to stash the mustard. Or, if you’re much older and laying in bed with a crying baby who NEEDS some juice, roll over there’s your mini fridge! The lock is a bonus, think of all the things you’d like to hide from houseguests but need a fridge to do so? Expensive champagne, delicious cheeses, even leftovers that you dream about all day long then get home to find them eaten! No more!

4. A dual egg poacher/toaster

I cannot think of a more useful kitchen appliance. Move over, KitchenAid Mixer you are no longer needed, and how often do I make my own pasta anyway?* Please take a moment to check out the pictures HERE. THERE IS A BUTTON FOR EACH OF THE FOUR POSSIBLE THINGS TO TOAST! That’s it though! You’re limited to those 4! If I even see you try to stick an eggo in there I will come to your house and burn you with the eggs mid poach!

5. Anything Royal Wedding Related

Unfortunately for you if you’re working on your registry now you’re probably getting married after 4/29/11 (watch for me tweeting from @popten starting at 5am EST on Friday 4/29! Once in a life time people (unless you happen to remember the one in the 80s)! I’m making scones and we’re watching this ish live!), so basically all this stuff will be on sale! And I mean it when I say ALL this, here’s a sample

Knit your own Royal wedding!

Paper Dolls!

A large variety of china

A LIFE SIZE STAND UP

I’m dying. This stuff is so good! Also I wanted to mention that I saw on CNN the other day that William WON’T wear a wedding ring and I was appalled, just like they wanted me to be! Those bastards! I’ve been thinking and thinking and imagining and the ONLY possibility where there would be someone in the world who wouldn’t know that he was married would be if there was someone with that disease where they couldn’t remember anything each morning. Seriously, if your selling point is you’re a prince, even if they don’t recognize you they’ll say price of where? You say… England… and basically they know who you are. Not that he’ll even have a hard time sleeping with other people if he wants to. Moral of the story? Regular dudes WEAR YOUR GODDAMN WEDDING RINGS! Princes – do whatever you want. As in you know, life. Anyway, if you get 8 china plates you can eat off them all the time! So I say go for it!

6. One-Person Bicycling Tent

I know what you’re thinking! What the hell is a one person bicycling tent? It’s exactly what you’re imagining:

You know what this tent is ideal for? Running away. Are you angry at your spouse? Do you need to get away from your inlaws? Now you don’t even need friends or a hotel room or a bar… you just need your bike and the open road my friend! Challenge yourself to see how far you can go! Head over to your office and pitch the tent by the front door and you’ll be employee of the month in no time! Happy work life = happy home life my friends!

7. Giant World MegaMap!

Get yours now before the topography becomes unrecognizable! So I grew up looking at maps, my grandma loves to travel within North America. She has state magnets on her fridge from every state she visited and large maps in her kitchen, she also LOVES Canada (not really relevant, just saying). Her maps are unframed and just tacked to the wall, which I think is hilarious and very dorm room of her.  This is another gift that’s sort of a think-ahead to when you have children. Children who don’t know where the countries are grow up into adults who don’t know where the countries are, and that’s just embarrassing. In the meantime bring your ipad, load up some NYTimes and learn where Libya is.

Bonus: Map tacks

8. 32-Pound Dumbbell Set with Stand

Do you know the reason why the only weights I have at my house are 2lbs each? It involves the distance from the sports store to my home and the fact that when you buy weights and carry them home you have to spend a few days in an ice bath to recover. You’ve never carried 32 lbs of anything so much as a block, admit it! This is a must-deliver item (and eligible for Prime shipping, so you don’t have to feel bad about the added costs!) that you can use to dry your shoes on rainy days too! (if you need me to draw you a picture of how this works I’m available)

9. Picnic Time Windsor Picnic Basket, Service for 4

I’m obsessed with reading the list of things included with this. Do you ever feel like when you buy a kit or something that includes a lot of small pieces that it feels like winning a prize? What’s this! Look at this pocket! Omg I found TWO bottle stoppers!

Included in this set; four porcelain plates, four 8-ounce wine glasses, four sets of stainless steel utensils, four double-wall stainless steel mugs, four cotton napkins, one hardwood cutting board, one cheese knife with wooden handle, one set stainless steel salt and pepper shakers, one stainless steel waiter’s style corkscrew, one bottle stopper, one stainless steel vacuum flask, one insulated corduroy cooler bag, one fully insulated corduroy wine duffle, two food containers with lids, and a matching 50-inch by 60-inch fleece blanket that can be attched [sic! oooh they spelled attached wrong! Should I tell them?] to the top of the basket using the leather straps.

10. Crystal Chandelier

One aspect of apartment living is that you’re probably missing the elusive formal dining room, hang this baby over your card table and you’ve got instant class! Plus, it’s super pretty! If you’re having a party you can just turn the chandelier on and hire someone to shake it a lot and instant disco ball! Bonus, if you have a small child eventually they can shake it for FREE and it pretty much pays for itself!

Best of luck to you on your new life together! May your ratio of eggs to toast always match and may your nights in the one person bike tent be few and far between!

* Just kidding person who eventually buys me a KitchenAid mixer that I’m TOTALLY putting on my registry IRL. Thank you thank you I will use it all the time!

1. via Yahoo Strange Undersea Creatures We Have Loved: 2010

2. via Mashable CTIA 2010 in Review: Top Trends in Mobile

3. @katiecouric: 2010 in Review

4. via Esquire: 102 Things That Made Us Proud This Year
(there are A LOT Of ads on this site, but watch the video on the first page it’s totally worth it!)

5. via The Inside Source: Year in Review: The Biggest Pop Culture Trends of 2010

6. via Pop Culture Whore: Adam Lambert 2010 Year in Review

7. via Google or YouTube I can’t tell: Zeitgeist 2010: Year in Review

8. via Zimbo: Biggest Little Moments of 2010

9. via Gawker: Our Favorite Movies of 2010

10. via The Onion: 2010 Year In Review: Because How Could Things Possibly Get Any Better After a March Like That?

1. The DVD cover is gross.
2. I didn’t realize that White was the last name of a family… which makes more sense.

Then I finally read the back of the DVD:

Shoot-outs, robberies, gas-huffing , drug dealing, pill popping, murders, and tap dancing – what do these all have in common? These are just a few of the parts of being a member of the Wild and Wonderful White Family. The legendary family is as known for their wild, excessive criminal ways as they are for their famous mountain dancing members, including Jesco White, the star of the cult classic documentary, Dancing Outlaw. Exploring both the comic and tragic sides of life on the other side of the law, this stylish, fast-paced family portrait exposes the powerful forces of corruption, poverty, and West Virginia’s environmentally and culturally devastating coal mining culture that helped shape the White family, a dying breed of outlaws preserving a dying form of dance.

I wasn’t sure what I expected, but what happened in the next 86 minutes was both terrifying and fascinating! The doc chronicles a year in the life of the White family in Boone County, West Virgina (a state whose motto turns out to be “Wild and Wonderful”). JCPE came home after the movie had ended and I spent a good 30 minutes recalling stories from the film. They do so many drugs! Someone does drugs at the hospital RIGHT after they have a baby! All the kids swear like freaking crazy! Everyone talks like their lungs have been scratched out! THEY TAP DANCE! Most of the men have been killed in shoot-outs! One kid shot his uncle IN THE FACE, had a 24 hour stand off WITH POLICE and is surprised not to get off with a warning! They take xanax and give each other tattoos in the kitchen! Did I mention THEY TAP DANCE! Just. Really. Bizarre.

Most of the family doesn’t work, they live off of Social Security checks that their dad hooked up for them, and drug dealing. The White family is loathed by their neighbors, fairly, because they steal, and they do things like HAVE 24 HOUR STANDOFFS WITH POLICE. They have kids that need to be taken away by Child Protective Services because they’re born addicted to drugs, they’re general hell-raisers. But, holy hell if they’re not really, really depressed. A 1991 Documentary about Jesco White, Dancing Outlaw, made him famous in his little corner of the world, and the man is just miserable. He doesn’t feel safe anywhere, he is on the edge, drinking and doing drugs, and mostly SAD. There’s a lot of crying, there is an overarching theme of wanting to give up. The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia is a worth-watching portrait of a family waiting for something to happen, but knowing that it probably never will.

Hello dear followers (just kidding, Hi! Julia and Lisa!!) I’m here to quickly announce to you that the Friday Round-Up is on hiatus until Friday, January 7th… I’m just not sure I’m bringing you guys the best content that I can right now, and with all the rigmarole of the Holiday Season I don’t want to punish you with bad quality programming!

I’m also focusing on re-vamping the Popten Twitter (Follow us! @popten) and instead of making my usual list of awesome things to save for you for Fridays I’ll be posting them as I come across them on Twitter! So it’s pretty much a constant streak of HK-ness and I promise to make it worth it!

Have a wonderful December and I’ll see you guys (on Fridays, I’ll still try to post during the rest of the week) in 2011!

love love love love

I know I know! We’re supposed to be mad at the TSA. I’m pretty willing to do anything to avoid not being blown to bits in the sky, but whatever, it’s America, we can all have our opinions. That’s why we live here.

Yesterday the TSA posted their holiday travel tips, here are the best:

5. Family Lanes: Frequent flyers hate it when they’re in line behind a family, and guess what… families hate it when the frequent flyer is behind them tapping their foot and sighing.

4. Foods: Pies are permitted, but they are subject to additional screening if our officers see any anomalies. (Additional screening of pies does not include our officers tasting the pie, no matter what they tell you…)

3. Travel Advice for Domesticated Turkeys: Stay away from humans.

2. Snow Globes: We are not in cahoots with the Heat Miser, but snow globes are not permitted in your carry-on luggage.

1. Travel Advice for Tofu Turkeys: You are not real.

Bonus:
Travel Advice for Pilgrims: Leave your muskets at home and refrain from wearing clothing with large buckles.

And really for good measure:
Inconsistencies: You may notice your screening experience at one airport doesn’t match the experience of another airport. We realize this happens, and some of it is intentional. While it can be a little confusing for our passengers, it also makes things unpredictable for those who might wish to do us harm. Our officers also can use their discretion in different scenarios that allows them to use common sense and not abide by a checklist mentality that can be studied and defeated by those who wish to do us harm.

Moral? It’s the holidays, calm yourselves!

Top Ten Headlines from the Daily Mail on Prince William’s Wedding:

10. Britain WILL get bank holiday to enjoy a national celebration for William and Kate’s wedding, says Cameron

9. Will a royal baby be top of her list? Kate will give up her job but won’t be a working princess right away

8. Ulrika’s dressmaker is bookies’ favourite to design Kate Middleton’s wedding gown

7. Beaming Kate Middleton visits parents… but smiles hide unease at family feud which means relatives won’t be invited to Royal wedding

6. Pictured: The remote Kenyan hut where Prince William proposed to Kate

5. From pit to Palace, the first steps of a very upwardly mobile family

4. Camilla COULD be Queen: Charles breaks five-year silence on future role of his second wife [totally relevant and hilarious]

3. For once, Charles, do your duty. Let William be our next King!

2. A very British Royal Wedding… and the bride wore a burka!***

1. Revealed: How Prince William is following his father’s footsteps and actually marrying his nanny

And for some good measure here’s one from Jezebel (who we also thank for the awesome picture) we can read for how sad and lonely our lives turned out to be:

Blame Disney For Our Royal Wedding Excitement

*** this one is from the FUTURE and worth reading:

On behalf of the American Tea Party movement, Governor Sarah Palin had intended to present the royal couple with an autographed, leather-bound copy of her latest book, Going Commando. Unfortunately, she can’t tell the difference between England and Canada and turned up in London, Ontario, by mistake.

1. I don’t watch Glee anymore because I don’t have time and the plot just, not interesting. But! I do watch the music (because that’s the point). Click HERE to see Gwyneth Paltrow singing CeeLo.

2. So, is she like a legit singer now? She sang at the CMA awards this week:

Charming right? She looks legit nervous.

3. I’m probably going to see this:

4. Last night’s 30 Rock was seriously awesome. You can watch the whole thing here:

5. Speaking of 30 Rock. Tina Fey was honored with the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. The zingers from Fey and her friends are just great.

Amy Poehler recalled meeting Fey back when they were both part of The Second City improv group in Chicago in the 1990s.

“Our dreams were as big as our unshaped eyebrows,” Poehler said.

6. Vulture attended the Times Talk with Tracy Morgan and holy crap talk about charming. It’s totally worth the read.

He remembers his SNL audition, which took place in Studio 8H in front of unlaughing judges: “It’s the scariest thing in the world. It’s like auditioning in front of Darth Vader.” Three days later, he was washing his car in the Bronx when Marci Klein called to tell him he’d gotten the job. His response: “‘Word. All right. Cool.’ I didn’t know how big it was going to be. Saturday Night Live was whatever to me. How much I getting paid? ‘$9,000 an episode.’ ‘What?!’ Ever since I shook Lorne Michaels’ hands, my kids eat. I’ve been a millionaire ever since I shook his hand, and that’s why I love Lorne Michaels. He is my Obi-Wan Kenobi.”

7. Once again I find myself that I need to watch Craig Ferguson. Dick VanDyke was on the show this week, as charming as ever:

8. I just find everyone so CHARMING today! What’s going on! Tina, Tracy, Dick! Just hi! Hi charming Americans! I adore you!

9. Here’s another great Glee clip! No context needed, it’s just cute, man.

10. That’s all I got! I’m hungry. Thank you BWE for this awesome poster.

… and the other two books. I enjoyed these books, I really did. I tried to get into the Swedish version of the movie and I made it like, 20 minutes… I’m aware it got great reviews, I do fully intend to try again. Hopefully the English version coming out next year will be more engaging! After reading all three books, I’m pretty much an expert on life up there, here’s what I learned.

1. Swedish people LOVE coffee. Everyone drinks coffee all the time… bedtime? Coffee. Meeting? Coffee. Lunch? Coffee. Reading files on an old murder? Coffee. Going for a walk? Bring your thermos! I’m surprised they sleep.

2. They also love sandwiches. I don’t know if Mr. Larsson was just hungry all the time, but these characters are living in sandwich paradise. Every kind, every size, every meal. I’m super jealous.

3. The title in Swedish is: Män som hatar kvinnor – “Men Who Hate Women.” What the hell, translators, that title makes about a gazillion times more sense! I just looked that up and the first thing I thought was “OH! I get it!” Like, I get the ENTIRE series all of a sudden! I knew it was about gender… but it’s ABOUT gender. Oh. Point taken: gender violence is a serious social issue in Sweden and needs to be addressed.

4. All the violence is just probably because it’s so cold. [note: I'm not going back and citing, these are from memory] Everyone is always bundling up. It’s always dark, there are long johns and scarves and sweaters and foot stomping and hand rubbing togethers. Although! The cold probably saves a lot of people from bleeding out, I imagine that it’s sort of like a preserver for those who get beat up during the books (no scientific basis, just imagining).

The Police aren’t so aggressive, here are some examples.

5. So they think they have the apartment of a murderer (I won’t spoil any plots). They get there, nobody is home… soooo what did they do? They called a LOCKSMITH! The murderer could be INSIDE and not answering, because that would be the smart thing to do since they’re going to have like an hour to kill while they wait for the police to get inside. They could be doing all sorts of things, like, leaving out a back door. Or, sitting there with a gun waiting for you to open the door! Kick it down!

6. THEN one of the police people pulls out their gun and it’s like the emotional travesty of the freaking century. On NCIS they kill people all the time… in these books they get really nervous and look around and wonder what to do. Not that I think police should be shooting like cray cray but if you have someone shooting at you, you do realize you also have a gun? There are 9358437657843 acts of violence in these books and hardly a one committed by the police.

7. They have sex a lot. Maybe it’s the cold? Maybe it’s just that the main character is irresistible. I guess if you’re single and going to meetings with people, or have a trainer at the gym, or know another person in any capacity at all and you have nothing better to do that would make sense… Side note, I was worried that they were going to make Erika Berger a not-older woman. She’s supposed to be 40s and I would be annoyed if it were like, Nicole Kidman. For reference the Swedish movie used Lena Endre, the US version is rumored to be asking Robin Wright Penn. I’m totally ok with that.

8. 1 Swedish krona = 0.1485 US dollars / 1 US dollar = 6.7335 Swedish kronor
(Are you reading the books now? You’re welcome)

9. Unsurprisingly, even more loved than the coffee are the coffee cups. Over and over they’re described in detail. My favorite is how the cups at the Millennium office all have union symbols or symbols from the democratic party line. We get it, they’re the liberal mag, I see what you did there.

10. Standing up for yourself is hard. The main character is a ward of the state even though she’s in her early 20s. Every time a woman tries to do something she’s shot down. Very few women work in the government, and the one that does is freakishly muscular (they also say “pump iron” makes me giggle, every time). All of this of course makes more sense now that I know the original title!

Here you go Lisbeth:

Have you read them? What did you learn? I’m waiting patiently for Popten’s resident Swede to chime in! Hi Jiun!!!

Two things happened yesterday.

1. My dad called to tell me that my uncle is stuffing his turkey this year with White Castle burgers. I actually think I might throw up right now from typing that. You know that go-to gross out place you go in your head when you need to throw up? This is my new one.

2. Gawker asked What Movie Scenes Are Too Gross for You to Watch? in response to a viewing of 127 Hours.

So I know nothing about this movie except what I’ve gleaned from the internet telling me that it’s way too gross for me to see. The gist I guess is: he cuts his arm off to free himself.

Remember the guy who did this in real life? (Google hint: ct man basement arm)

His arm could not be saved.

Oddly, although I know I’m not going to see this movie, because I no longer need a mental ipecac (see above) I’m less inclined to be offended by this than I am by say, Saw 3d, or Burlesque.

If Rotten Tomatoes holds even a bit of truth I’d say my instincts are spot on. Grossness for the sake of being gross? What are you trying to prove? A well-acted, well-directed film is so rare these days that when we get one, gross or not, it’s totally worth it. This movie looks awesome.

One of the year’s best films: Anchored by James Franco’s astounding performance, 127 Hours is a more sharply focused, more emotionally touching, and more technically impressive work than Danny Boyle’s 2008 Oscar-winner Slumdog Millionaire. – Emanuel Levy

Boyle and his co-screenwriter Simon Beaufoy have taken what could have been the man vs. nature equivalent of torture porn and transformed it into a visceral, exhilarating drama about hope, life and the need to belong to something greater than one’s self. – Jim Vejvoda

For background:

Dying?

1. I’m watching Rachel Maddow. She’s talking about the stock footage used in Sarah Palin’s ads… get your own yawning bear HERE!

2. Rachel’s interviewing Tank! Levi’s bodyguard! I love that guy. Have you seen this pistachio ad?

I love it.

3. Last bit of political news. Bristol Palin didn’t vote. Like, of course she didn’t. She’s like 19, she’s a mom, she’s on dancing with the stars, what does she care about voting. I’m not even kidding, I totally believe that she doesn’t care. Related: I really respect and like Meghan McCain.

While appearing on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” Wednesday, McCain slammed Palin and said it was “ridiculous” of her to not vote.
“I think a lot of women worked really hard to give us the right to vote, and I think it’s anyone who doesn’t vote is just ridiculous,” she said of Palin.
“I guess it’s only important for Bristol Palin to vote for ‘Dancing with the Stars,” McCain said.

4. Ellen interviewed her wife, Portia de Rossi yesterday to talk about Portia’s new book and her former eating disorder. I love them, they’re just so happy together and so supportive of each other.

5. So, yesterday an old dude boarded a plane in Asia and on his way to Canada aaaaaaaaaaand BECAME A YOUNG DUDE mid flight!! I can’t. Why would you change in the bathroom, A. And B does this mean that people have done this before? I bet like, yes. Everybody get totalllly nude before you get on a plane please.

6. It’s cold. So I 100% want one of THESE.

7. Ok, so LeAnn Rimes makes me insanely uncomfortable. Her face is just so, clearly not real…. like look at her teeth and her eyes and her middle of her entire face. It’s confusing. I feel like something must have really really gone wrong. So she stole a husband and somehow is relevant again and did this interview that makes my skin crawl. If you can even make it to the part where they’re looking into each other’s eyes and like cuddling? puke. They should be super embarrassed about this, they’re not 10 years old, but they also haven’t acted like adults much so… yeah.

8. Nick Lachey and whatsherface got engaged. I don’t even care enough to link to anything to to see if I spelled Lachey right… Lacey? Don’t Care.

9. To make you feel better after those non-issues that I’m really sorry about:

10. But nothing could prepare you for the awesomeness of this:

via Gothamist.

Amused that his last tweet was about Pearl Jam and being old. Since you know, the whole being the old guy in *NSync thing.

I remember when pearl jam was just dust in an oyster, man I’m old

So then I see a link to Nigels11. [UPDATE: to clarify I see the link on Chris Kirkpatrick's twitter page... because it's HIS band. Chris. From *Nsync. Is in a home-studio-recorded band.]

Who preform in bowling alleys.
And make this.

They’re not bad, a little ska a little country, a little rock? That’s cool man. It’s just that they’re really really guy next door someone that you know… the friend who was in a band forever and now that they’re over 30 it’s a little like, I don’t want to be mean but maybe you should settle down, or get a sound designer, because omg… but I admire your spirit, and I enjoy the occasional show!

It’s just odd, coming from this guy:

Not in a bad way. I’m glad you have a normal life Chris! Good luck to you!

And the afternoon is ruined, if you need me I’ll be watching *NSync Videos.

.