The World after TV:The Grid

Ok, this was started as a blog about sports so as the Formula 1 season start looms close, I'll be slowly getting back on track with the sports side of "Movies and Sports." Today while browsing for F1 info, I came across a great online show about everything motorsport. It is called "The Grid." It is one of those shows tha make me think that (offline) TV is indeed dying.

Episode 1

The show is hosted by Neil Cole and Kevin Shepherd. Neil runs the blog Motorsport Bloke, while Kevin is a stand-up comedian and a podcaster for Another F1 Podcast. The two spent most of the time discussing the off-season gossip in F1 like Lewis Hamilton's peculiar choice of facial hair and the ugly/crazy nose designs for F1 2012. They were joined via Skype by former British rally driver Andrew Coley who will is running the rally-side of the show. Cole and Shepherd's jokes on the noses and the new female driver in GP3 where so outrageous that they made me cry. Definitely a must see for all that suffer from F1-withdrawal syndrome.

Episode 2

The best part of the second episode of The Grid is Kevin's description of his first NASCAR viewing experience. Priceless! Montoya's crash takes center stage - not unlike his Formula 1 days. Thankfully, now we have Lewis H doing the same job so we do not miss the crazy Colombian on this side of the pond but it's great to see that he still has what it takes to set a car on fire. 

Episode 3

This is the latest episode of Neil and Kevin's new gig. It is dominated by talk about Ferrari's somewhat dismal performance in testing. The two host are joined by the Italian sports journalist Tancridi Palmea. Palmea's take on Ferrari and Luca di Montezemollo make the third episode almost as funny as the first one. By this episode Kevin seems to (not surprisingly) have given up trying to watch NASCAR races.

The Grid is broadcasted every Tuesday on the Youtube channel Sports Tonight Live. If I could get in touch with the producers, I'd suggest that they also broadcast the show as a live Hangout on Air in Google Plus. Otherwise for F1 fans I have just one conclusion - this seems even better than the BBC studios last year!

If you have already seen the first three episodes of The Grip, what did you like the most?

What's Hot and What's Not: Shoes

I have always been a big fan of pumps. I wish that the arch and form of my feet could allow me to wear more of them but at least this does not stop me from writing.

What's Not Hot: 15 cm/6'' Pumps

This is one of the cases in which more is not better. Wearing pumps makes female legs attractive only as long as their owner can actually WALK with them.

Image Copyright: Ayakkabi Sandalet

As if it is not bad enough that you are effectively standing on your toes (hopefully only for a couple of hours during the evening), the pressure on your ankles can cause a serious injury. It has been frequently said that beauty requires sacrifice but this should not be taken to mean that women should sacrifice their ankles for an extra inch or tow that is rarely noticed. Unless you participate in an S&M party, wearing 6 inches is unnecessary torture that will come back to haunt you and if you want to spent a respectable amount of time on your toes - the local yoga class is definitely a far better option. 

Furthermore, being 5.7 (173 cm), I have noticed that if you are above 5.8 (176 cm) with your heels, you are already as tall as some of the men (at least in Southern Europe) and there is nothing that bothers a man's ego as much as dating a woman that is taller than them. It's genetically programmed in men to expect to be taller than their partners - just remember how Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise's marriage ended. Unless you are below 5.3 (158), wearing 6 inch pumps would not help you look more attractive in the eyes of the opposite gender.

What's Hot: Finding the Right Shoes

Not all shoes are created equal. The arches of the feet of women differ. Some can tolerate 4-4.5'' (10-12 cm), some (like yours truly) find everything above 3'' (7.5 cm) a torture. What fits your feet is relative. So jumping after the next fashion trend that tells you to wear 6 inches and pray you would not fall on the street, is just stupid. Take you time to find the type of stilettos and heels that make your arches feel comfortable instead of hanging in the air. The market is filled with different kind of shoes for every taste, do not sacrifice your comfort in walking (and possibly your back in the long run) just to blindly follow fashion trends. Trends are important but personal style is even more important.

Image Copyright: 12 Ounce Prophet Forums

Inspiration for this post: Victoria Beckham at the Royal Wedding last April

Made for Mums

Pregnant and on very high pumps!? Not only do those kind of shoes put the baby in danger but pregnancy is putting enough pressure on your ankles anyway to aid it with having an unstable support from your heels.  Even if you are not carrying a baby, this pair of shoes is definitely not a good combination with Vicki's dress - the contrast between the free flowing dress and the stilettos is not a welcome one.

Do you agree with Victoria Beckham's fashion choice?

If you like this post, check also my posts on the Oscars, Make-up, and Cocktail Dresses, or just leave me a comment :)

We, the Europeans?

When drawing a dress, a designer faces the choice to draw the dress first and then think about the body of the model or the other way around. In designing the European Union, we have the same problem. We chose the first approach and now we wonder why the dress does not fit. Most of the issues exposed by the crisis were already there before it - the EU just tried to avoid them praying they would go away by themselves.

The first step to solving a problem is admitting there is one. The second step is finding the CAUSE. This takes a lot more courage and honesty. We prefer to cure the symptoms of financial crisis by "bailing out" and "quantitative easing" because actually looking at the roots of the problem can expose that the system needs changing, that our understanding of how the economy works needs a radical rethinking and that there is something rotten and corrupt in the wall street controlled main street and city hall. It is always easy to say - well, it just happened, it is an aberation, a statistical mistake!

Guess what - miracles do not happen. If the Greek debt crashed it is for a reason. If the Netherlands is in a recession, it is for a reason. The cause, however, are never the foreigners, the different. Just ask the Germans what good brought to them believing a mad man that the Jews were the problem. I fear we have forgotten the lessons of the past. The young people nowadays do not remember the Second World War and the Cold War. They do not remember there was an Iron Curtain and a concrete wall separating the east from the west. They do not respect the victims of the past, not the mistakes of the past.  

In time of crisis, the Europeans are losing hope. While during the Great Depression there were two ideologies for those that lost hope, nowadays there is only one. Communism was exposed for the inhuman utopia it is, and one would think the same should have happened with fascism. It did not, it is sneaking back into the hearts and minds of the Europeans, convincing them that the OTHERS are the problem: i.e. the Muslims, the Poles, the Bulgarians, the Romanians.

The great idea behind the EU is that it is about "us, the Europeans" and not about 27 countries connected by an "and." As long as good people in Western Europe allow crazy conservatives/neo-Nazis to convince them there is "us&them," Europe is in danger: the danger to go back to how it was during the last Great Recession. We all remember how badly the things ended for ALL of US back then, do not we?

If you liked this post, check also my other posts on economy: Economy and Math and The Recession: Volatility and Positive Feedback.

If I Were a Star

If I were a star,
I'd wish to shine shortly but brightly.
I'd wish to die a fiery death
and give birth to other stars and planets.

If I were an universe,
I'd wish to have life.
I'd wish to have creatures
to admire my beauty and rejoice.

If I were an atom,
I'd wish to be carbon.
I'd wish to combine
and create life and reason.

I'm a person,
I dream about the universe,
it's beauty. And I wonder,
"Is it only me?"

This was my little poem (blank, completely non-rhythmical verse).

The Crab Nebula

Image Copyright: Science of Starcraft

If you liked this, you might also like my post on Cool Exoplanets.

What's Hot and What's Not: The Oscars

The Oscars are usually the biggest fashion event of the year - especially if there are designers/stars brave enough demonstrate unique sense of style. Regretfully, the truly remarkable pieces of fashion during the 84th Academy Awards were quite few, instead we got a lot of really scary-looking skinny stars. 

What's Hot?

Being Unique

Leslie Mann's Roberto Cavalli dress blended a disco look with traditional red carpet cut without going into extremes. It just had enough of each to make Leslie Mann appear mature and stylish at the same time. The set up could have been also nicely matched with a prominent necklace. Mann's disco teamed dress was the only one that was not overly-flashy. I would love to see this one under the night sky.

Leslie Mann

Image Copyrights: Mondo Moda Blog

Berenice Bejo's Haircut

While her husband was busy winning the most prestigious Academy Awards with "The Artist" (i.e. Best Picture and Best Director), Berenice managed to demonstrate a unique haircut that is both simple and stylish. It would have benefited from a little bit of "sparkle" in the hair (i.e. jewelry or highlights) but even as it is it still light years away from the "tried" and "recycled" look of most of the other red carpet stars. 5 stars for Berenice's hairdresser.

Image Copyrights: Mondo Moda Blog

What's Not Hot?

Anorexia

After Amy Winehouse and Whitney Houston's untimely deaths there was a public outburst that their prior drug-induced misbehavior was actually a cry for help. Well, the red carpet shape of some of Hollywood's stars this year is also a cry for help. There is another problem among the stars that has nothing to do with drugs and pills - it is anorexia. The bigger issue, however, is that not only are they mistreating their own bodies but they are influencing a lot of young girl on their approach to food, diet, and healthy lifestyle. 

Angelina Jolie

Angelina should not wear anything that even remotely reveals her legs or arms. If she loses a little bit more weight, she might shrink completely. It's scary to think how such a naturally beautiful women can appear so unhealthy. The only excuse to have knees and elbows in this shape, is to be suffering from food deprivation - with her fortune, this is definitely not the issue. Furthermore, the form of the dress actually underlined rather than tone down Angie's problem. Recently, it seems as if somebody has artificially sewed her head to the body of somebody else.

Image Copyrights: My Daily

Rose Byrne

Rose Byrne does not fair a lot better with Vivian Westwood's black disco dress. She is really skinny and frankly also quite flat so wearing black from the waist up should not be an option from her. I dream about the old days in which colors were actually used to optically reveal (or hide) what is necessary to be shown (or avoided). Byrne's head also looks enormous atop her tiny torso.

Image Copyrights: Shopping Blog

Giuliana Rancic

There is one simple rule for skinny and flat women - never wear low waist dresses. The missing waist outline just further emphasizes the lack of femininity in their bodies. A far better solution is an "Empire" dress that optically magnifies even small busts. Just as with Jolie and Byrne - huge head on top of a small body is cute only if you are a baby.

Image Copyrights: Celebuzz

Rooney Mara

So much wasted potential! Mara's dress is actually quite nice but not in combination with her extremely skinny neck and shoulders. Just like the other four stars in this session - Rooney's face made me think of concentration camp survivors.

Image Copyrights: STYLEITE

Conclusion

No, a star or a model is not just a hanger for clothes!!! Anorexia should not be encouraged during public events.

If you liked this post, you might also like What's Hot and What's Not: Make Up and What's Hot and What's Not: Cocktail Dresses.