Oscar Dress up

Fashion is something that a lot of men steer relatively clear of, allowing the women in their lives to dominate that portion of their lives - if they allow fashion into their lives at all. But everybody seems to have an opinion about what people wear at the Oscars. Who is the best dressed. Who is the worst dressed. Women, men, children all seem to have their likes and dislikes about what looks good or bad on who... So the day after the Academy Awards finds the media saturated with snippets and shorts, stories and articles, exposes and exclusives about the best dressed and the worst dressed, the fashion bombs and the fashion winners, photos, pictures, and videos. You can't turn on an electronic device without Whoopi Goldberg pouncing on you with her leopard-print horror or Sarah Jessica Parker's mannish face emerging above a beautiful gown (and good for her; it distracted from what was above the neck). The Best And Worst Dressed Men At The Academy Awards For the gentlemen who come to the Oscars, a simple black tuxedo usually suffices. But you know that some of the guys have to be creative, so they can't even get that one simple fashion rule down. Take Philip Seymour Hoffman, for example. Great actor. He was dressed all in black, including something that look tike a beret or a tam on his large noggin. The effect? A big guy rolled up in a sofa cover. With a head covering. Atrocious. Oh, and he looked like he slept in it, whatever it was. Esquire agrees. Hoffman was the worst dressed at the Academy Awards. If you are going to go all black, Oscar-nominated Sean Penn ("Milk") had the right look. Graceful cut to his tuxedo. Black shirt. Probably gay approved as well (as it should be, the man looked good enough to win an Oscar). You want to know how it is done, just take a look at Hugh Jackman. Simple traditional black tuxedo. That's the look, guys. Study. Take notes. Actually, take a note. Simple traditional black tuxedo. Got it? Good. Leave it alone. Who else? Dev Patel, the teen star of "Slumdog Millionaire," which took home eight Academy Awards at the 2009 Oscars, including Best Picture. Looking good is important if the camera is going to be on you all night, win or lose.
On the flip side of the same coin, the director of "Slumdog Millionaire," Danny Boyle, looked as if he just rushed over to the Oscars after putting in 12 hours at the office. Open collar, long tie. No.  And ... no. Among the best dressed, according to Esquire, Oscar-nominated Brad Pitt ("The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"), Twilight's Robert Pattinson, Oscar-nominated Frank Langella ("Frost/Nixon"), Zac Efron, Oscar-nominated Robert Downey, Jr. ("Tropic Thunder") and Ryan Seacrest. Esquire also mention the above-mentioned Jackman and Patel, plus a risqué Mickey Rourke, a stylish Daniel Craig, and Sean Penn.
The worst? Oscar-nominated Ron Howard (director, "Frost/Nixon"), who needed a shave. Esquire said that John Legend had over-accessorized with a tie clasp. They might not have been so hard on him had they known he wasn't singing his own song at the Oscars (he sang Peter Gabriel's tune from "Wall-E").

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It was just a tie clasp, guys. The Best And Worst Dressed Women At The Academy Awards Women are an entirely different subject when it comes to fashion. There are so many different things that can go wrong with a woman's look that it isn't even funny. It's a mix-and-match nightmare. Get the perfect dress and ruin the look with ugly shoes. Perfect shoes and hair, terrible dress. Perfect clothes, slightly off accessories or hair. That's why women spend so much time choosing and getting into their formal clothes. They're looking for the perfect look. And sometimes they find it. Or think they found it. Although the dress Whoopi Goldberg wore looked terrible on her, she still was not the worst dressed. That dubious honor has to go to Tilda Swinton, who won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for "Michael Clayton." Her two-toned dress ensemble was an eye-wrenching abomination - with a bunched-up shoulder effect that just looked as if the polyester tightened up. And then there was that ridiculous Snuggie-gone-wild monstrosity that Jessica Biel had on. Huge swathes of cream cloth billowing from a cream dress... Prada? Was that a joke? Perhaps leftovers from the designer's straight-jacket? Who knows? Miley Cyrus looked like she was dressing for a 4-year-old's princess-themed party in her godawful get-up. Walking the red carpet with her pageant wave bordered on the extremely gauche. As for the best dressed, Angelina Jolie was stunning in black. Penelope Cruz was beautiful in her 1950's-style off-white gown. Natalie Portman was beautiful in her tight... what color was that dress, exactly? E! Online reported put "Slumdog Millionaire" beauty Freida Pinto in the worst dressed. And they were right. But some put Kate Winslet's terrible retro-dress in their best-of as well, but the charcoal effect with the severe pulled-back hair just did not work. One expected her to start doing a Gloria Swanson impression when she accepted her Best Actress Award ("The Reader"). Beyonce's gold-and-black attack made her look as if someone had someone had crumpled up black and gold wrapped paper and placed her inside. E! Online agreed, stating that they had had enough of the mermaid dresses. E! Online trashed Amy Adams gown (said it was part of the carpet she was walking on) as well, but loved her necklace. The dress wasn't terrible, but it did nothing for the girl. However, that hideous distraction around her neck made one forget how forgettable the dress actually was. But, really, when it comes right down to it, the women at the Oscars have it a lot rougher than the men. The men are safe as long as they play conservative, go traditional, get a shave and a nice hair trim. For the women, it all depends on the eye of the beholder.

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"Bailout Bill"

The term "Bailout Bill" conjures up the political maneuvering happening on Capitol Hill as our nation's senators attempt to wrestle a nearly trillion dollar stimulus package into a neat package that the American public will support. However, in Manhattan's Times Square, the folks there have a different notion of what a Bailout Bill is. There, Bailout Bill is listening to the stories of down on their luck New Yorkers and dispensing a little stimulus of his own - anywhere from $50 to $5,000. According to the BBC, hundreds have waited in line for hours just to tell Bailout Bill their hard luck story and receive a bit of cash for sharing their money woes with him.

Bailout Bill to take his Bailout Booth on the road

According to the BBC, Bailout Bill will be spreading his wealth in cities other than the Big Apple. In the near future, those down on their luck Americans in the Boston, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. areas should look for Bailout Bill and his Bailout Booth to make an appearance. Do you live too far away to pay Bailout Bill a visit in his Bailout Booth? Stop by www.bailoutbooth.com and leave your hard luck story and perhaps you, too, can get some of his bailout cash.

Is Bailout Bill's generosity just unique website promotion?

Bailoutbooth.com is a website that offers a video service that costs just under $10 per month per service. Tying a business model to YouTube-like videos designed to help land a job or a hot date, the website bills itself as "classified advertising for a new generation". Will site visitors come to the site only because they seek free money? Or will they flock to the site to upload a video of the car they are attempting to sell? Is Bailoutbooth.com catching the wave of a new advertising medium as yet largely untapped? Giving away loads of money sure would generate a fair amount of PR buzz about the site.

Fredericksburg, Virginia-area Church has done something similar to Bailout Bill and his Bailout Booth with reverse tithing

 

The Free-Lance Star reported last weekend that the pastor of Life Point Church in Spots ylvania, Virginia surprised his congregation by giving $12,000 back to church members. After the weekly collection, a second basket was passed. Church members each took a sealed envelope out of the collection basket and were directed to not give the money back to the church, but to bless someone else with the money and to tell the story of how they impacted another's life with the money. Envelopes could contain as little as $10 or as much as $1,000. To help the congregation with the storytelling aspect of the pastor's request, a blog was set up so that church members could easily share their gift giving stories. A glimpse at the blog postings that appear on the newly minted blog speak of pooling money to help out a single mom, helping a struggling college student, helping a poor child afford a coat and so much more.

Stimulus package and potential 7 new hot Careers

(Since this article was written, the stimulus bill has been passed--- 64% spending, 36% tax cuts.So, happily, only 36% of it is verifiably worthless.)

In opposing the pending stimulus package, Michael Steele declared recently that "government—federal, state or local—has never created one job." This will come as a jolt to the 15 percent of America's labor force that is currently employed by one or another of these three levels of government. (1)

Speaking of jobs, Steele recently became chairman of the Republican National Committee, which must make him feel like the captain of the Hindenburg. The kindest interpretation of Steele's seemingly off-the-wall remark is that he doubts the permanence of some of the jobs that the economic stimulus bill can be expected to create. Steele concedes that the government can create jobs "for a short term, yes. It's a construction job." (2)

In the first place, short-term jobs—in construction or anything else—are still jobs, and a temporary job is better than no job at all. As John Schoen notes at msnbc.com, 597,000 jobs were cut in November, another 577,000 in December, and 598,000 in January, "the most since the end of 1974, pushing the U.S. unemployment rate up to 7.6 percent." (3) Under the circumstances, many of these hapless workers would, no doubt, be more than willing to settle for a short-term job, for now.

Moreover, the work done in, for example, construction jobs—Steele brought them up, not me—may well pave the way, as it were, for future jobs. Rebuilding infrastructure or even erecting an office building facilitates the performance of work, which requires workers, who will be paid for their work, and will subsequently be able to spend money, helping to rejuvenate the economy. Perhaps it makes too much sense for some people.

But suppose, just for now, that the final stimulus bill consists mostly of tax cuts, with little in the way of spending (although, as the president has emphasized, spending is the key to any stimulus). Tax cuts, we know empirically, will not stimulate the economy. They are merely a sop to various benighted constituencies (and, of course, to big business). But if the final bill consists mainly of tax cuts, the jobs situation will not improve. In that case the 7 Hot Careers of the next few years may well be the following:

1. DRIFTER. With the economy in the dumpster, Drifters will be in demand by companies because they usually don't command high wages and if they do, they won't be around long anyway. Usually employed in jobs involving brooms.

2. SCREW-OFF. Like Drifters, Screw-offs do not usually command high wages (although there are exceptions). The truly dedicated Screw-off works harder at getting out of work than if he had simply done his job. Though most companies will be basically unproductive, they will still need someone to sweep and dust occasionally.

3. SNITCH. Needed to keep an eye on the Screw-offs so they will get something done at least sometimes. Though technically used to inform on co-workers who violate company policy, Snitches are also valued for keeping things interesting in the workplace by lying about co-workers, as when a waiter or waitress falsely accuses a colleague of stealing tips.

4. DITTOHEAD. Because management realizes that ignorant employees are the most malleable ones, Dittoheads are in great demand. They continuously spout right-wing drivel in the workplace, and frequently have a radio at their desk (at sufficient volume to make a captive audience of everyone working nearby) tuned to the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, or Gordon Liddy—ideally, all three of them, consecutively. Sometimes the Dittohead will also tune in to intolerant, redneck preachers who know as much about Jesus as Paris Hilton knows about carburetors.

5. ILLEGAL ALIEN. Always in great demand, Illegal Aliens are expected to be an even hotter commodity as the economy continues to decline. Most of them work dirt cheap in menial jobs and don't much care how they are treated. All they care about is booze and drugs and selling them to others.

6. WEATHERPEOPLE. Most of them work for relatively low pay, and they are not required to have any particular insight into what the weather might do on any given day. Moreover, they get to go by the snazzy title of Meteorologist.

7. SEXPOT. All big businesses and many small ones like to employ red hot Sexpots. The only disadvantage to this job is that men need not apply. One of the attractive aspects of this position is its flexibility. For one thing, Sexpots are not rigidly relegated to any particular height or build; good looks and curves are the only prerequisites—and sometimes curves alone suffice. For another, they can get away with bloody murder. They are generally good for morale in the workplace, though they can be distracting at times—but that's just a risk the company will have to take.