Ive adopted the "Heres What" phrase from my watching of...trash on Bravo. More accurately the Watch What Happens Live that follows said trash of a Housewife nature. The host Andy Cohen has a H'ere's What segment. It has become part of my vernacular and because I like it I'm doing a segment. Becausd I like aliteration - its on Wednesday (what, wednesday...)
Normally when I say "here's what " in conversation you can expected a pointed statement loaded with opinion, covered in a hearty sauce of attitude. Other times I use it while giving advice to break down what the person I am talking to views a difficult situation to the bare bones simple answer they've been avoiding. Tonights edition really doesn't hold true to my typical uses.
Here's What
I feel like we have lost charm in this computer age. Charm went out of our lives long ago. Look around. Everything is angular and hard. Every home is filled with multiple screens where paintings and pictures of special moments captured once hung. Instead of looking around we look at our portable computers in our hand. Most are more likely to a tree on their Ipod screen than on a walk.
Now don't get me wrong, im a techno geek. Im writing this on my beloved laptop and I'm going to upload a photo to go along with this in a bit on my cherished Iphone 4 which will probably give me some sort of hand cancer because it rarely leaves my palm. I most commonly use it doing the most natural of acts - nursing my child
I. am . not. a techno. hater.
However I can't help but look around and wonder what weve given up. Houses look pristine and well cookie cutter. Modern homes while very stylish and cool lack warmth.
We can't have arguments on topics or trivia contests because we all have a google machine in our hands ready with 4.6 million website hits on whether or not Goofy is a dog or some other animal.
I do see a cry for the simple, beatuiful charm that once surrounded us though. People are very into shabby chic and I myself just downloaded about 100 actions for photoshop to take my high tech digital pictures and alter them to make them look more "old" . Old photos which were taken with grainy film and poor exposure. We have perfect pictures with no skill but we crave that old charm of the odd off lighting and dark spot in the corner that we develop programs to make that happen. One of Itunes best selling apps is Hipstamatic which takes the amazing pictures an Iphone 4 shoots and makes them look like they were taken with a plastic film camera from 5 decades ago. Its also my favorite Itunes purchase to date and I have every expansion pack....
I think what made me ponder all this was my porch and the posts. We remodeled a farmhouse that was Tony's grandmothers birthplace and moved into it last August. We gutted the thing and redid everything in and out. We kept some things authentic like the wood floors and these really cool vents in the floor which can be seen below. At first I hated them because they weren't pristine but we buffed them and they are such a cool authentic piece to the house. They have...charm.
The parts of the house that were a new addition all have nice modern porcelain tile and awesome kitchen that I'm in love with , but what didn't get redone was the porch. I moved in hating it and hating these posts but as i sit and look at them and wonder how nice the porch would look with columns I take pause. Yes new fixtures would give it a more sleek look but at what cost. I don't know... I think I like the old marred wood, it tells a story.
