Fashion: Nasty Gal

Posted on by 20poorandfabulous

One positive thing about personalized internet marketing, on sites like Facebook, is that Nasty Gal ads pop up nearly everywhere I go. And I am totally O.K. with it.

Lita platform boot in Butterfly. $162. So amazing. Photo: nastygal.com
Lita platform boot in Butterfly by Jeffrey Campbell. $162. So amazing. Photo: nastygal.com

I DO spend chunks of free time browsing through their shoes, most of which I could never wear for more than a car ride to sitting down at a party because of a bunion situation and my general lack of being able to wear shoes like this. Maybe someday I’ll have the guts (and the funds) to wear Litas. Le sigh! 

Their clothes are amazing as well. I’ve found multiple faux-fur coats that I love, but they always tend to be sold out or out of my popular medium size. Nuts!

If anyone was having issues styling themselves, pretty much anything on this site is good to go. You’ll be in style heaven and getting compliments like newlyweds: A little bit of jealously mixed with shock and awe.

Vintage, clothes, accessories, shoes, sales (!!!) and a kicky blog to keep you in the fashion loop.

Also, their models are good. Especially Chrishell. I wrote Nasty Gal an email once explaining how much I liked that she looks like a healthy model. She wears the shit out of the clothes she models. Go Chrishell! They emailed me back a very nice letter. Go Nasty Gal!

Owner Sophia Amoruso, I love you. Great style, great store, greatness all around.

This is cool: 80s and 90s models

Posted on by 20poorandfabulous
Look how pretty they are!

This 80s and 90s supermodels tumblr is oh-so pleasing to the eye. Check out the hot babes rocking cooler than cool 80s and 90s fashion. I’ll take 3 of everything please!

Celebrité: Photoshop madness, Beyoncé edition

Posted on by 20poorandfabulous

How far is too far when it comes to Photoshop?

The latest photoshop outrage has hit the net in the form of Beyoncé’s lighter-than-usual skin color. The questions begin: Is it just bright lighting, a weirdo and possibly pseudo or fully racist photoshopper, or Beyoncé supported lightening of her skin?

Beyonce, is that you?
Beyonce, is that you?

As far as photoshop regulation goes, the UK has placed a ban on misleading makeup ads, meaning that any celebrity or model that looks flawless and wrinkle-free on beauty product ads are subject to investigation (seeing as we see these women in movies and on perezhilton with obvious wrinkles, but when it comes to selling beauty products they miraculously disappear.) False advertising= huge no-no in Britain. But the deeper sociological question lies in what the message of lighter skinned and physically altered models sends to the public, namely women and young girls.

It’s no new idea that manipulating women’s, i.e. celebrity’s bodies and faces to look thin, wrinkle free and sometimes perfectly robotic, has left an unreachable impression of the female form for the rest of the country, let alone the world.

The question remains in America. With our overly exposed entertainment industry and an undying thirst for everything perfect perfect perfect, when is it time to stop the photoshop? Are the celebrities themselves so hell bent on “having it all” that they insist on perfection in every photo they take? Or is it something deeper than that?

Also, who ARE the people who photoshop black women lighter, models even skinnier and celebrities without limbs? What’s their beef with people as they are? Or is it their upper management telling them what to do? Getting rid of blemishes and cellulite by way of photoshop is understandable, but some of this is undoubtedly taken too far.

Activism: The SOPA Blackouts

Posted on by 20poorandfabulous

I LOVE the SOPA blackouts. It’s an interesting event happening on the internet, a place where it’s rare to have a realtime event. Image

When thinking about the SOPA debacle, my mind immediately goes to money, and a power struggle between the people at large vs. powerful corporations and powerful government officials. What bothers me most about the discussion is that the people holding seats in Congress and the House of Representatives are old. I don’t mean to be ageist, but if these people are as technically challenged as my own parents and basically anyone alive in the 70’s, then do they even know anything about the bills they support, and what they mean for mass communication, ACTUAL freedom of speech and liberty?

The Egyptian protests that were put together using Twitter and Facebook are a perfect example of why the government wants to pass bills like SOPA. Mass communication among the people is a huge threat to government control. What if the government had the power to shut down Twitter and Facebook, maybe during protesting times, under the vaguely written SOPA bill? And even certain news websites, because they were doing and saying things the government simply didn’t like? Is that free speech? Or is it free speech, government-approval pending?

This is not Democrat vs. Republican. Not by a long shot. This is censorship for the masses.

I read today on reddit that the entertainment industry paid Congress 93 million dollars to fast-track a bill like SOPA so they could get control over the piracy issue. Does that even make any sense? As a country, a body of people, is it O.K. that corporations are able to pay our politicians to create or not create certain legislation?  We’re the people, right? Shouldn’t they be working for us?Image

Maybe the entertainment industry should find better ways to sell their products, or (shockingly) try to be innovative, instead of trying to push government censorship in our alleged “land of the free.” Or maybe, the entertainment industry could stop producing movies with that “Get ‘Er Done” asshole and make quality things, that people would actually want to spend their money on. Piracy will always find a way, Jurassic Park style. I believe there is no way around it. Enforcing any kind of censorship in the United States of America is a disgrace to everything we as a people have ever believed our country to be.

Food: Pizza bagels

Posted on by 20poorandfabulous

20, poor and fabulous. Well, in-my-20s, poor and very fabulous. Minor details.

Having little money, an aversion to fast food and a pantry full of parent-friendly 16 grain bread and such, I am often forced to be very creative with my late-ish night snacks. 9:30 isn’t very late, but when you live with your parents and they love a 5:00 dinner, 9:30 can feel like a lifetime.

In between reruns of Sex and the City, my appetite, and thirst for wine to take the unemployed edge off, run rampant. I could take the easy way out and hit up Taco Bell, but I’m not that stupid. Eating that shit is stupid enough in the day light, let alone hours away from bedtime. So I find creative, sometimes awesome, oftentimes disgusting ways to fill my belly with healthier options right from my parents pantry.

Tonight it was, you guessed it, 16-grain bread, organic pizza sauce and pepper jack and mozzerella cheeses. Maybe it sounds good, maybe it sounds bad, but it wasn’t all it lived up to be. I’m no slouch in the kitchen, but sometimes when you don’t have what you crave, you have to get creative and hope for the best.

Yummmmmmmmmmmm, Photo: smellslikefoodinhere.blogspot.com
Yummmmmmmmmmmm, Photo: smellslikefoodinhere.blogspot.com

However, I can entrust you with a simple, inexpensive and amazing late-night alternative to 16-grain pizzas and a call to Papa Johns (but holy shit, that garlic sauce is fucking awesome.)

Late Night Pizza Bagels

There are a few ways to make late night pizza with things not involving Taco Hut. Bagels are an awesome option in place of 16 grain bread. But when it comes down to brass tacks, you’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do.

Ingredients

Bagels

Jar of pizza sauce

Italian cheeses, mixed bag or cheeses of your choice

Optional: Meats, veggies, anything that can go on a pizza

Cut the bagels in half and place on a baking sheet. Preheat the oven to 400 F. Spread the pizza sauce over the cut bagels covering the surface and using as much sauce as you’d like. Then sprinkle the cheese over the sauce. Place any toppings you’d like on top of the cheese. Pepperonis work great, but I don’t know many people who just happen to have pepperonis on hand. Put the bagels in the oven for about 10-12 minutes, or until the bagels feel crispy and the cheese has melted.

My good-intentioned 16-grain pizza debacle.
My good-intentioned 16-grain pizza debacle.

I hope you enjoy your fool-proof pizza bagels. Try them, they are so so easy to make even if you hate cooking with all of your soul. They are seriously awesome, and a bajillion times better than the disastrous 16-grain pizzas I made tonight. Which may be attributed to my hatred of 16-grain bread.