Since I haven’t found any blog topic requests or recommendations yet you’re going to be subjected to a bit of randomness about me. Lol. One of my guilty pleasures is reality competition shows that involve art in some form. I appreciate most artistic endeavors and sometimes they inspire me, too. I fast forward the drama and all that junk, so I can just see the good stuff.
My favorite show is So You Think You Can Dance (SYTYCD). I did ballet very briefly as a kid and absolutely love to dance, especially line dance (hey, I’m a country girl!), although my illness has caused me to reduce my participation a lot or else I can’t walk for a few days afterward. So dance is extra near and dear to me. I love how it can tell a story, make you feel such intense emotions within just a few minutes, and especially how captivating and beautiful dance can be. As I’ve mentioned before The Nutcracker is a favorite of mine. The children make you smile, shake your head at Fritz’s misbehavior, grow wide eyed over Drosselmeier’s mysterious movements, and oh how your breath catches while watching the beautiful Sugarplum Fairy. SYTYCD showcases an amazing array of dances and many of them have choreography that is just as captivating as The Nutcracker, to me. I have saved some of the performances on YouTube for that very reason. Seasons later and I still love the choreography for “Total Eclipse of the Heart”, “Bleeding Love”, and “Mad World”.
Next would have to be Face Off. I find the talents of makeup artists absolutely fascinating and especially love when they create props. It reminds me of my body products, since the artists transform items that have set uses into props that sometimes defy logic. Similarly a soap crafter can use a ton of everyday items for soap molds, like clean milk cartons, PVC pipe, candy molds, and even jelly roll pans with cookie cutters. I love the creativity behind unconventional items. We all know that I have a love of the macabre, too, and most makeup challenges tend to have a flair for gore and fantasy. *happy sigh* It’s starting to edge out SYTYCD as my favorite actually if the competition remains as amazing as it has for the past two seasons.
Project Runway in the many variations is next. I spent many hours sketching clothing ideas, which is really ironic since I have such a poor fashion sense when it comes to dressing myself. lol. I love seeing a piece of fabric and a few embellishments become a work of art, and the unconventional challenges and red carpet looks are my favs. I often don’t care for what was created, since I tend to like Hepburn and Jackie O’s taste instead of avant-garde. I still love seeing the process though and appreciate what goes into it.
There are tons of other similar shows I stumble upon, especially when I have insomnia or my shows are off season. The Voice and Dancing With the Stars are two I watch often, as well. The other day I watched a few episodes of Fake Off, where teams recreate moments, like one I watched was of Yoda fighting Darth Maul and another was a play on the 1-800-hotchicks type of commercials. The cool part is that it combines choreography, puppetry, black lights/illumination, and shadow dancing. The creativity is captivating despite some of the troupes being a bit kooky.
Cooking competitions get recorded a lot, too. Some of those chefs and bakers are true artists. I have had two layer cakes that went horribly wrong, yet these people pull off ten layer cakes like it’s a walk in the park. The air brushing, sugar pulling, and molecular gastronomy makes it all the more fascinating.
Maybe if we all remembered to appreciate artistry instead of drama we would be better people for being couch potatoes. Of course, I can be creative when it comes to justifying my becoming a couch potato. 🙂
Georgia's Pampering 