Top Models: Where Are They Now?

There's been a lot of posts related to ANTM this week, but a lot has been going on. Following Tyra Banks' appearance on The Jay Leno Show and the announcement of Nicole Fox winning Cycle 13 of ANTM, Out.com has rounded up some of the series' most noted girls to find out what they've been up to since their cycle.


photo from Out.com
In revealing interviews the models dish on how "real" the reality competition truly is, and what they really think of Tyra Banks. The answers are pretty surprising! Read them here.

What's Your Stereomood?

I am all about the new music lately! Many moons ago I wrote about Musicovery.com, a streaming audio site that lets you play tunes based on your mood and personal tastes. Another site has popped up with a similar feeling with a more streamlined player.

Stereomood.com serves up a tag cloud of thoughts and feelings to suit whatever mood you may be in. You just click the words that best describe your feelings and a great playlist of mood-appropriate songs pops up!


You can also join (for free!) and start creating your own mood lists or variations to save and stream whenever you like. Be it "Feel like crying, "Focus on" or "Just wake up" there is a mood list available. This morning I'm listening to "Sunny day."

What would your mood list be today?

[thanks, Ru]

Free (and Good!) Music from Urban Outfitters

Have you ever walked into a clothing store and heard great music playing in the background? I can't tell you how many times I've been shopping and thought, "Who sings this?!" Being that I don't have an iPhone and am sans Shazam I'm normally left to ask someone in the store or scour the Web to find the unknown tracks.

Interestingly enough on my last visit to Urban Outfitters they gave me a sleeve of stickers in my bag, which turned out to be the names of the artists featured on their latest FREE music download called LSTN. It's 100% free music from artists that you may know, but probably don't. On the seventh and most recent installment you get free tracks from bands like The Big Pink, Girls, Apache Beat and The XX.

I think part of the big appeal about finding songs recommended by Urban Outfitters is that the music that they play in their stores is both upbeat and relaxing (mostly) at the same time. The tunes are awesome for background noise while you're mind focuses on something else -- like shopping -- and I spent hours last weekend sipping coffee and writing while my iTunes flipped through track after track of undiscovered gems.

You can get all the free tracks (over 100 so far) from LSTN.UrbanOutfitters.com. Enjoy!

OMG! Little Kid Does Bon Qui Qui

Over a year ago I posted what has still remained one of my favorite sketches to quote ever: Bon Qui Qui. My buddy Ru has now shared with me a video that is changing my life. Please watch these little kids re-enact the sketch better than I ever could!


I'm so embarrassed for this kid, and so proud at the same time. I will now forward only be quoting them instead of the original sketch.

Man, I am doing nothing with my life.

The Many Faces of Tyra Banks

Clearly I'm a big fan of Tyra Banks and ANTM, and honestly this slideshow from BuddyTV.com had me hysterically laughing! Check out the 50 unique faces of Ms. Tyra Banks...

SlideshowAmerica's Next Top Model: 50 of Tyra's Scariest Faces

I think Nightmare-Maker face might be my fave! Which one is yours?

How to Find a Masculine Halloween Costume for Your Effeminate Son

The morning show spoof from The Onion never ceases to make me cringe with laughter. Here's this morning's segment on how to butch up your effeminate son on Halloween.


How To Find A Masculine Halloween Costume For Your Effeminate Son
What are you being for Halloween this year? I'm being a sailor. Totally macho.

That's a Deal Breaker!

My Internets were aflutter yesterday with this blog that has apparently caught fire. Perhaps inspired by the "That's a deal breaker, ladies!" sketch from 30 Rock, Deal Breaker brings real life "seriously?"s to the Web. Written by a snappy duo, Deal Breaker shares the many reasons why you absolutely must break up with your boy/girlfriend.

Are any of these deal breakers for you? (click the description for the full breaker info)


You talk like the Internet


You are Lady Gaga


You make me want to listen to Tori Amos


You aren't a real person, just a coat on a coat rack in the dark

I would have to say that beyond the crazy ones my deal breakers would have to be you're cheap, you're always late, you're a bad kisser and you don't own a TV.

What's your biggest deal breaker?

My New YouTube Friends

While taping our episode of BFF Carolyn and I met two other contestants who also make vlogs on YouTube. Grace 'n Michelle are two former roommates who now bring the funny to the internets.

We all had brunch together last weekend, which they filmed for an upcoming video series, so look for that soon! But in the meantime say hello two our new vloggy friends:

Here's Grace portraying a lifetime in 48 seconds


and here's Michelle playing with a slinky!


Making friends is fun! Check out more Grace 'n Michelle on their site.

Do You Use Hulu (and Are You Using It Right?)

Let's be honest - I watch a ton of television. Like, more than is probably OK for a normal person to consume, but I can't help it. It's what I do. Needless to say my DVR fills up very quickly with shows that I can't watch in real-time, and I often defer to online outlets to catch up on shows I've missed. While almost every TV outlet streams their shows online, I consistently go to Hulu.com to watch everything; except CBS shows, which aren't on Hulu. Before I continue let me state that I am under no obligation to promote Hulu, I just really like it.

Most web-savvy people are aware of Hulu and how you can watch full TV shows and movies, but I've noticed that a lot of people aren't taking advantage of all of its features. The first thing you should do is register for an account. Yes, you can totally watch all the programs without having an account, but you're missing out on all the personalized features.

Just like you can schedule to record your favorite series on your DVR, you can "subscribe" to shows on Hulu so you never miss an episode. Just go to the show page for the series you're looking for and click subscribe. Hulu will keep all of your recorded episodes in your queue, so you can go back and watch whenever you're ready.


This feature's great because you don't have to remember which episodes you've seen, and it lends itself nicely to an impromptu mini-marathon of catching up. I use this feature a lot, especially for shows that aren't critical for me to see the night they air. I also watch a lot of shows the day after they run on Hulu while at work (hey, I'm an entertainment producer, I'm allowed) so I don't have to wait to watch at home at night.

This weekend I also discovered the joys of Hulu Desktop. It's a download-able program that lets you watch everything Hulu has to offer without actually logging into the site itself. I can use the remote for my Macbook to turn it on and navigate without typing anything. It's perfect for the person with a large computer display or people that watch the majority of their shows line. Here's a better explanation from Hulu:


I know that my television consumption is greater than the average person, but anyone can use Hulu to improve their viewing experience. I'm curious to see how many more years I go before I ditch my cable altogether and watch everything exclusively online, but for now I'll take every workaround possible.

Do you watch full-length shows online? Where do you watch them and why? Would love to hear your thoughts.

My Parents Were Awesome

Yes, yes, my parents were awesome, but I'm not talking about them specifically. I'm talking about a new blog called My Parents Were Awesome. From the site: Before the fanny packs and Andrea Bocelli concerts, your parents (and grandparents) were once free-wheeling, fashion-forward, and super awesome." Amen.

While I unfortunately don't have any scanned images of my own parental units, please check out some of my favorites from the site...








Love the classic photos. These parents thought they were so cool. Bet they're really glad they didn't have Facebook back then.

Speaking of technology... Do you think these romantic, candid photos are even going to exist once people of the Facebook generation become parents of adults? Or are we so used to living in the digital age where we can delete and re-shoot pix until everyone looks "cute" that the truly magical moments will be deleted to save memory card space for shots of people half hunched over and smiling?

100 Greatest YouTube Hits in 4 Minutes

Someone has went and created a montage of the 100 greatest hits on YouTube. Some of them you'll notice right away and others are a little more obscure, but check it out!


Which one do you think is most memorable?

Duo Takes Advantage of JetBlue's Unlimited Flight Deal

When JetBlue announced their $599 All You Can Jet deal in August passengers were given the opportunity to fly on the airline from Sept. 8 to Oct. 8 as much as they wanted for the cost of an expensive round trip ticket. The deal sold out within a few days, but no one took advantage of the savings quite like Clark Dever and Joe Dinardo. The duo hatched a plan to literally fly the entire 31 days, spending 12 hours in each of their destination cities.


They launched TwelveHoursInACity.com to chronicle their adventures across the US and the wild and wacky activities they encountered along the way. The pair was featured on ABC News World News Tonight last night and talked about the journey as it is about to come to an end. Watch the video here.

If you could get a free ticket to anywhere in the world where would you go?

Missed Connections Turned to Beautiful Art

Reading Craiglist's Missed Connections is probably one of the most voyeuristic things you can do on the web without buying a subscription. If you say you've never looked at them and hoped there was one for you I think you're probably lying.

Sometimes people are really creepy, and sometimes they are truly poetic about that passing moment they had with a potential soul mate. Well, Brooklyn-based artist Sophie Blackall has captured the essence of some of the best Missed Connections in fantastic prints. Check out some of Blackall's imagined scenes from Craigslist...






So beautiful. What a great way to romanticize something that has the potential to be so creepy. You can purchase a print from Blackall's Etsy shop or view more of her art on her blog.

[Photos from Sophie Blackall
thanks, Justin]

Kanye West Is the Meme Du Jour

Ha! Check out the article I wrote for iVillage.com about all the Kanye West parodies that are popping up by the dozen on the Web. Read it here.

iVillage.com Debuts New Entertainment Site

The blog entries have been light and my energy has been low lately, but that's because I have been very hard at work for the last month or so relaunching a new website for my job (I have a real job besides the blog, obviously!)

This morning iVillage.com debuted our new entertainment site and it is a beaut!


To learn more about the site and what's in the works for iVillage you read this lovely feature about us in the New York Times.

Please take a moment to view the site and click around, because a lot of hard work went into its creation. Let me know what you think!

In the interest of disclosure, if you haven't noticed already I'm an employee of iVillage/NBC Universal

How Media Has Changed In the Last 5 Years

I woke up really early yesterday and just happened to catch this piece by Jeff Greenfield from CBS News about media convergence. It's a really interesting look at not only how we use media, but how information has been condensed into one, universal format.


Watch CBS Videos Online
I guess I forget how rapidly things have changed since 2004... being endlessly connected. Interesting to think about how the Internet has changed the world. I remember when my family first got online, which will be for my generation what "I remember when we got color TV" was for my parents.

And the conversations about news papers and magazines ceasing to exist is on going. Will people still pick up a copy of the daily news when they can just read it online for free? Or will paper versions be completely phased out in a generation?

What do you think?

Facebook, Twitter Help Parents Stalk Teens

My little brother Drew just went off to college last week along with thousands of other teens. It would serve him and all the other freshmen well to watch this clip from The Onion that brings up some funny but very relevant points about protecting your social networks from prying parents.


That eMom isn't effing around! De-tag the booze pictures, kids.

Shoulder Cookie Is Stupidly Delicious

I think I might need to start a side blog that just highlights all the completely random photo blogs out there. This might rank right up there with People From Walmart, but I think I found an even stupider yet strangely entertaining site.

The premise of Shoulder Cookie is pretty simple: Take shoulder. Apply cookie. Photograph. Enjoy.


The original shoulder cookie


Tag team


That cookie is the least of her worries...


Fortune shoulder cookie? Fail.

Isn't great to see just how many ways the Internet can enrich our lives?

[thanks, Laufik]

The People of Walmart Are Really Sad

I'm all for web sites that feature rude and unflattering of people, but People of Walmart actually makes me kinda sad. I mean, I still laugh... but it's sad. Basically site is user-submitted pictures of unfortunate people shopping at America's largest chain store. Behold some of the best...


The mullet queen!


Hope he picked up another shirt while he was there.


Crack is wack, Diane.


Ok, this one makes me really sad...
I'm kinda surprised the site hasn't been annihilated by corporate Walmart, but I'm glad I got to see it before it's gone.

What's the worst thing you've ever seen in a Walmart?

Watch Pat and Carolyn on BFF TV

Carolyn and I were recently on the MySpace gameshow BFF where we were put to the test to find out how much we knew about each other.


Think of it like a Newlywed Game for besties. We won some cool prizes! Check it out...


Head over to Myspace.com/BFF to watch more episodes, read blogs and see photos of us! We were intense!

Can we have our own show now? Thanks.