CheapThrills

Oh shnapppp!

Totally rad Tetris dress

It's not for sale. But I really want one. I wish I had some Erin McKean (the dressmaker) connects...

...because Tetris is the best video game of all time. And this dress rocks. Looks like the music should start speeding up any minute! (yeah, I'm a nerd.)

via A Dress A Day

Happy Friday!

Gets me every time.

Interracial couple denied marriage in Louisiana

"I'm not a racist. I just don't believe in mixing the races that way," [Keith] Bardwell, [justice of the peace in Tangipahoa Parish] told the Associated Press on Thursday. "I have piles and piles of black friends. They come to my home, I marry them, they use my bathroom. I treat them just like everyone else."

I think that pretty much says it all.

Read full article here.

DirectTV's King Kong ad: Playing up a peculiar allegory

This TV spot irks the hell out of me. Perhaps because it cuts in during virtually every show I watch - from MLB playoff games to America's Next Top Model marathons. Perhaps because borrowed interest always turns out phony and lazy.

Or, perhaps, my distaste has something to do with the King Kong mockery itself.

By now, we should all get that the original King Kong film portrayed a <racist> metaphor for race relations in the U.S:

King Kong is all happy being the ruler of a weird, backwards island in the middle of nowhere. He's "discovered" by some White explorers, who basically kidnap him and bring him to the civilized world in chains and shackles. When King Kong escapes, he's murdered. But before he dies, he falls in love with a beautiful blond, and they have some sort of relationship. Which seems silly to viewers - after all, how could a proper woman possibly spend time with an uncivilized giant ape?

Now go through this synopsis and replace all references to "King Kong" with "The African man", and you should get the symbolism.

But apparently, this obvious allegory was totally lost on the marketing folks at DirectTV. The spot, in which a poor man's Naomi Watts jabs at King Kong for not being "evolved" and for "staring at her 24-7", plays up all the controversial racist undertones that the original film portrays. These insults on Kong strike me as gratuitous, and, given the history of the King Kong story, written in utter bad taste. Am I missing some crucial bit of info that makes this spot worthwhile? Somehow I doubt it.

Things To Do When You Have Swine Flu

I was supposed to go home to Philly for Columbus Day weekend. Instead, two days ago I found myself curled up in the fetal position shivering on hospital paper sheets with a fever of 103.5. They swabbed my nose (gross!) and sent me out the fire exit all dolled up in a bendy face mask. On the way home, passer-bys gasped at my twitchy, shaky, sweaty, masky appearance. Kids ran away, visibly upset.

The doc called the next day. H1N1 virus (a.k.a swine flu). Confirmed. Actually, the first case he's seen in Chicago! But the best part? I must stay home for an entire week... thus missing my weekend at home and eating the airfare (thanks a lot American Airlines).

Anyway, this is Day 3 of my week long quarantine. I'm feeling ok. But I'm kinda, well, bored. So to pass the time, I've been:

• Doing jigsaw puzzles. Well, just one. But I've got the border done!
• Catching up on the news. Did you hear the Phillies won the World Series?!
• Looking out the window at my neighbor's TV. It's fun to try and figure out what they're watching. Like a spy.
• Seeing how long I can go not showering, wearing the same pajamas. If no one is allowed to visit you, you can smell however you want! It's great!
• When I get the mail: Wearing my mask in the elevator and facing the wall, totally still. It really freaks people out.
• Wearing my mask around the apartment and taking pictures of myself with my webcam. Surprisingly entertaining.

If you have suggestions for other super-neat things I can do with the next 4 days of my life, send them my way!

-Ryan